we have a more sure word of prophesie Gods blessed booke assures us of a third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 called elsewhere the heaven of heavens the Paradise of God the bosome of Abraham the Fathers house the City of the living God the Country of his pilgrims A body it is for bodies are in it but a subtile fine spirituall body next in purity to the substance of Angels and mens soules It is also say some solid as stone but cleare as chrystall Rev. 21.11 Job 37.18 A true firmament indeed not penetrable by any no not by Angells Yates his Modell spirits and bodies of just men made perfect but by a miracle God making way by his power where there is no naturall passage It opens to the very Angels Job 1.51 Gen. 28.12 who yet are able to penetrate all under it The other two heavens are to be passed through by the grossest bodies Verse 8. And the evening c. Here 's no mention of Gods approbation of this second dayes worke Not for that hell was then ceated or the reprobate Angels then ejected as the Jewes give in the reason of it but because this dayes worke was left unperfected till the next to the which therefore the blessing was reserved and is then redoubled God delights to doe his workes not all at once but by degrees that we may take time to contemplate them peece-meal and see him in every of them as in an opticke glasse Consider the lillies of the field saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 6.18 Prov. 6.6 Goe to the Pismire thou sluggard saith Solomon Luther wisht Pontanus the Chancellour of Saxony to contemplate the Starchamber of Heaven that stupendious arch-worke born up by no props or pillars Proponit contemplandam pulcherrimam coeli concamerationem Nullis pilis columnis impositam c. Scultet Annal. 276. and yet not falling on our heads the thicke clouds also hanging often over us with great weight and yet vanishing againe when they have saluted us but with their threatning lookes And cannot God as easily uphold his sinking Saints and blow over any storme that hangs over their heads An Artificer takes it ill if when he hath finished some curious piece of work and sets it forth to be seen as Apelles was wont to do men slight it and take no notice of his handy-work And is there not a woe to such stupid persons as regard not the work of the Lord neither consider the operation of his hands A sino quispiam narrabat fabulam Esay 5.12 at ille movebat aures is a proverb among the Greeks Christ was by at the Creation and rejoyced Prov. 8.30 Angels also were by at the doing of a great deale and were rapt with admiration Job 38.4 5 6. Shall they shout for joy and we be silent Oh how should we vex at the vile dulnesse of our hearts are no more affected with these indelible ravishments Verse 9 10. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered c. The water they say is ten times greater then the earth as is the ayre ten times greater then the water and the fire then the ayre Sure it it is that the proper place of the water is to be above the earth Psal 104.6 Saylers tell us that as they draw nigh to shore when they enter into the haven they run as it were downe-hill The waters stood above the mountains till at Gods rebuke here they fled and hasted away at the voyce of his thunder Psal 104.6 7. to the place which he had founded for them This drew from Aristotle Lib. de mirabil in one place a testimony of Gods providence which elsewhere he denyes And David in that Psal 104. which one calleth his Physicks tells us that till this word of command Let the waters c. God had covered the earth with the deepe as with a garment For as the garment in the proper use of it is above the body so is the sea above the land And such a garment saith the divine Cosmographer would it have been to the earth but for Gods providence toward us as the shirt made for the murthâ—ring of Agamemnon Psal 104.6 9. where he had no issue out But thou hast set a bound saith the Psalmist that they may not passe over that they turn not againe to cover the earth God hath set the solid earth upon and above the liquid waters for our conveniâ—nâ—y so that men are said to goe downe not up to the sea in ships Psal 107.23 See his mercy herein as in a mirrour and believe that God whose work it is still to appoint us the bounds of our habitations will not faile to provide us an hospitium Act. 17.26 a place to reside in when cast out of all as he did David Psal 27.10 and Davids parents 1 Sam 22.4 and the Apostles 2 Cor 6.10 and the English exiles in Queen Maries dayes Sculâ—et Aâ—â—al and before them Luther who being asked where he thought to be safe answered Sub Coelo and yet before him those persecuted Waldenses Rev. 12.15 after whom the Romish Dragon cast out so much water as a flood but the earth swallowed it and God so provided that they could travell from Cullen in Germany to Millain in Italy Cade of the Church p. 180. and every night lodge with hosts of their own profession The waters of affliction are often gathered together against the godly but by Gods gracious appointment ever under the heaven where our conversation is Tareus in loc Philip. 3.20 though our commoration be a while upon earth and unto one place as the Text here hath it The dry-land will appeare and we shall come safe to shore be sure of it Esay 26.4 The Rock of eternity whereupon we are set is above all billows washt we may be as Paul was in the shipwrack drowned we cannot be 1 Pet. 1.5 because in the same bottome with Christ and kept by the power of God through faith to salvation Verse 11.12 Psal 104. Let the earth bring forth c. Grasse for the cattle and herb for the use of man and both these before either man or or beast were created He made meat before mouthes He fills for us two bottles of milke before we come into the world Herbes and other creatures we have still ad esum ad usum Our land flowes not with milke onely for necessity but with hone too for delight Nature amidst all is content with a little Grace with lesse Sing we merrily with him Hoc mihi pro certo Georg. Fabricius Chemnicensis quod vitam qui dedit idem Et velit possit suppeditare cibum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 12. and the earth brought forth c. St. Austine thinks that thorns and thistles brambles and briars were before the Fall Aug de Gen. 〈…〉 cap. â— 8 though not in that abundance that now
Vers 12. It shall be at the salt-Sea That is the Lake of Sodome called also Asphaltites and the dead Sea Josephus saith that an ox having all his legs bound will not sink into the water of this sea it is so thick Vers 17. Eleazar the Priest Pointing to the high Priest of the new Covenant by whom we have entrance into the promised inheritance whither he is gone before to prepare a place for us and hath told us that in his Fathers house are many mansions room enough CHAP. XXXV Vers 2. SVburbs These were for pasture pleasure and other Country-Commodities not for tillage for the Levites were to have no such employment Num. 18.20 24. Vers 6. That he may flee thither All sins then are not equal as the Stoicks held neither are all to be alike punished as by Draco's laws they were in a manner Those laws were said to be written not with black but with blood because they punished every peccadillo almost with death as idleness stealing of pot-herbs c. Aristotle gives them this small commendation that they are not worth remembrance but only for their great severity Vers 7. Shall be fourty and eight cities Thus the Levites were dispersed throughout the land for instruction of the people so ought Ministers of the Gospel who are fiâ—ly called the salt of the earth that being sprinkled up and down may keep the rest as flesh from rotting and putrisying Vers 8. From them that have many ye shall give By the equity of this proportion the richer are bound to give more to the Ministers maintenance then the poorer Let this be noted by those that refuse to give any thing to their Ministers because they have not those things the tithes whereof the law requires for this purpose See Gal 6.6 with the Note there Vers 15. Shall be a refuge Christ is our Asylum to whom running for refuge when pursued by the guilt of an evill conscience we are safe None can take us out of his hands If we be in Christ the Rock temptations and oppositions as waves dash upon us but break themselves Vers 16. So that he dye Though he had no intent to kill yet because he should have look't better to 't he is a murtherer he smote him purposely and presumptuously and the man dyes of it King James was wont to say that if God did leave him to kill a man though besides his intention he should think God did not love him Vers 18. The murderer shall surely be put to death This is jus gentium The Turks justice in this case will rather cut off two innocent men then let one offender escape Cartwr travels The Persians punish theft and man-slaughter so severely that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or the other A severity fit for Italy where they blaspheme oftner then swear Spec. Europ Purchas and murther more then revile or slander like the dogs of Congo which they say bite but bark not And no less fit for France where Les ombres des defunde fieurs de Villemor within ten years 6000 gentlemen have been slain as it appears by the Kings pardons Byron Lord high-Marshal of France and Governour of Burgundy slew a certain Judge for putting to death a malefactor whom he had commanded to be spared Epitome hist Gall. pag. 275. For this he sued for a pardon and had it but not long after he turned traytor to his Prince that had pardoned him and was justly executed Vers 21. He shall surely be put to death And yet the Papists allow wilful murtherers also to take sanctuary who should as Joab was be taken from the altar to the slaughter Their hatred to Protestants is so deadly that they hold us unworthy to live on Gods ground fit for nothing but fire and fagot yea they send us to hell without bail or main-prize as worse then Turks or Jews They tell the people that Geneva is a professed Sanctuary of all roguery that in England the people are grown barbarous and eat young children that they are as black as Devils c. Vers 23. Or with any stone As at the funeral solemnities of Q. Anne a scholar was slain by the fall of a letter of stone thrust down from the battlements of the Earl of Northamptons house by one that was a spectatour Vers 25. Vnto the death of the high Priest Because he was amongst men the chief god on earth and so the offence did most directly strike against him Or rather because the high Priest was a type of Christ and so this release was a shadow of our freedom and redemption by the death of Christ CHAP. XXXVI Vers 1. ANd spake before Moses Who was their common Oracle to enquire of in all doubtful cases Like as at Rome C. Scipio Nasica whom the Senate by way of honor called Optimus had a house in the high-street assigned him at the publike charge quò faciliùs consuli posset that any man might go to him for counsel And surely as the Romane General never miscarried so long as he followed the advice of Polybius his historian so neither did or could this people do amiss if ruled by Moses who was the mouth of God vers 5. Vers 6. To whom they think best See Gen. 24.57 58. with the Note there Vers 7. Shall keep himself to the inheritance This was an excellent law to cut off quarrels strifes and law-suites and to frustrates those qui latrocinia intra moenia exercent as Columella said of the Lawyers of his time Vers 11. For Mahlah Tirzah and Hoglah c. The names of these virgins as one Interpreter elsewhere observeth seem to be not without mystery M. Ainsworth For Zelophehad by interpretation signifieth the shadow of fear or of dread his first daughter Machlah Infirmity the second Noah Wandering the third Hoglah Turning about for joy or Dancing the fourth Milcah a Queen the fifth Tirzah Well pleasing or Acceptable By these names we may observe the degrees of our reviving by grace in Christ for we all are born as of the shadow of fear being brought forth in sin and for fear of death were all our life-time subject to bondage Heb 2.15 This begetteth infirmity or sickness grief of heart for our estate After which Wandering abroad for help and comfort we finde it in Christ by whom our sorrow is turned into joy He communicates to us of his royalty making us Kings and Priests unto God his Father and we shall be presented unto him glorious and without blemish Ephes 5.27 So the Church is beautiful as Tirzâ—h Cant. 6.3 Deo soli Gloria A COMMENTARY or EXPOSITION UPON The Fifth Book of MOSES CALLED DEUTERONOMY CHAP. I. Vers 1. These be the words which Moses spake ANd surely he spake thick if he spake as some cast it up this whole Book in less then ten dayes space Certain it is that he spake here as ever most divinely and like
Heaven and the Angels were of necessity say some to be created the first instant that they might have their perfection of matter and form together otherwise they should be corruptible For whatsoever is of a praeexistent matter is resolvable and subject to corruption But that which is immediately of nothing is perfectly composed hath no other change but by the same hand to return to nothing again But if this were the Heaven Quest what was the Earth here mentioned Not that we now tread upon for that was not made till the third day But the Matter of all Answ that was afterwards to be created being all things in power nothing in act Vers 2. And the earth was without form and voyd That is as yet it had neither essential nor accidental perfection The Lord afterward did form it into Light the Firmament the Water and the Earth So beginning above and building downwards in the new Creature he doth otherwise and in three days laying the parts of the World and in other three days adorning them The Rabbins tell us Alsted Lexic Theol. p. 111. that Tohu and Bohu do properly import Materia prima and privatio and others of Tohu derive Chaos whence the ancient Latines called the World Chohus and borrowed their word Inchoâ— c. And darkness was upon the face of the deep That is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of Hell as Origen expounds it but of the deep waters see the like Luke 8.31 Which as a garment covered the earth and stood above the mountains Psal 104.6 This darkness God created not for it was but the want of Light And to say That God dwelt in darkness till he had created Light was a devilish sarcasm of the Manichees as if God were not Light it self and the Father of lights 1 John 1.5 James 1. Or as if God had not ever been a Heaven to himself Ere ever he had formed the earth and the heavens Psal 92.2 What he did or how he imployed himself before the Creation is a Sea over which no ship hath sailed a Mine into which no spade hath delved an Abyss into which no bucket hath dived D. Preston of Gods Attributes p. 34. Our sight is too tender to behold this Sun A thousand yeers saith a great Divine are to God but as one day c. And who knoweth what the Lord hath done Indeed he made but one World to our knowledg but who knoweth what he did before and what he will do after Thus he As for Saint Augustine Prasul ad haec Lybicus Sabin Poâ—â— fabricabat Tartara dixit His quos scrutari â—â—lia mente juvat Excellently another Cuff his Differ of Ages p. 22. who wanted no wit As in the eliament of fire saith he there is a faculty of heating and inlightning whence proceedeth heat and light unto the external neer bodies And besides this faculty there is also in it a natural power to go upward which when it cometh into act is received into no other subject but the fire it self So that if fire could by abstractive imagination be conceived of as wanting those two transient operations yet could we not justly say it had no action forasmuch as it might move upward which is an immanent and inward action So and much more so though we grant that there was no external work of the Godhead until the making of the World yet can there be no necessary illation of idleness Seeing it might have as indeed it had actions immanent included in the circle of the Trinity This is an answer to such as ask what God did before he made the World Plotin Eunâ—â—d 3. lib. 2. c. 2. God saith Plotinus the Platonist not working at all but resting in himself doth and performeth very great things And the Spirit of God moved c. Or hovered over and hatched out the creature Ferebatur super aquas non pervagatione sed potestate non per spatium locorum ut Sol super terram sed per potentiam sublimitatis suae Eucberius Psal 145 9. as the Hen doth her chickens or as the Eagle fluttereth over her young to provoke them to flight Deut. 32.11 Or as by a like operation this same holy Spirit formed the childe Jesus in the Virgins womb in that wonderful over shadowing Luke 1.35 The Chaldee here hath it The Spirit breathed and David saith the same Psal 33.6 He became to that rude dead mass a quickning comforting Spirit He kept it together which else would have shattered And so he doth still or else all would soon fall asunder Heb. 1.3 Psal 104.29 were not his conserving Mercy still over or upon all his Works Verse 3. And God said Let there c. He commanded the light to shine out of darkness He spake the word and it was done 2 Cor. 4.6 Psal 33.9 148.5 Creation is no motion but a simple and bare emanation which is when without any repugnancy of the Patient or labor of the Agent the work or effect Dei Dicere eft Efficere doth voluntarily and freely arise from the action of the working cause as the shadow from the body So Gods irresistible power made this admirable Work of the world by his bare word as the shadow and obscure representation of his unsearchable wisdom and omnipotency And there was light This first light was not the Angels as Augustine would have it nor the Element of fire as Damascen nor the Sun which was not yet created nor a lightsome cloud or any such thing but the first day which God could make without means as Galvin well observeth This light was the first ornament of the visible World and so is still of the hidden man of the heart the new Creature Acts 26.18 The first thing in Saint Pauls commission there was to open mens eyes to turn them from darkness to light c. To dart such a saving light into the soul as might illighten both Organ and Object In which great work also Christs words are operative together with his commands in the mouths of his Ministers Know the Lord understand O ye bruitish among the people c. There goes forth a Power to heal as it did Luke 5 1â— Or as when he bade Lazarus ariâ—e he made him to arise So here the Word and the Spirit go together and then what wonder that the spirit of darkness falls from the heaven of mens hearts Ephes 5 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet 2 9. as lightning Luke 10.18 So as that they that eâ—st were darkness are now light in the Lord and do preach forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Verse 4. And God saw the light that it was good Praeviderat autèm â—â—sberellus so one rendereth it he saw this long before but he would have us to see it he commends the goodness of this work of his to us Good it is surely
and a goodly creature Sweet saith Solomon Eccles 11.7 Comfortable saith David Psal 97.11 Which when one made question of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot Beatumâ—ssâ— hominem Deo fruentem sicut oculus luce August de Civitat Dei l. 8. 2 Cor. 6.14 1 Thes 5. â— 6 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 1.13 Lactant. That 's a blinde mans question said the Philosopher What is it then to enjoy him that is Light Essential The Platonists who were blinde in divinis and could not see far off yet they could say that he was a blessed man who enjoyed God as the eye doth enjoy the light And God divided the light c. Let not us confound them and so alter Gods order by doing deeds of darkness in a day of Grace in a Land of Light What make Owls at Athens or such spots among Saints as count it pleasure to riot in the day time It was a shame that it should be said There was never less wisdom in Greece then in the time of the seven wisemen of Greece It was a worse shame that it should be said to the Corinthians That some of them had not the knowledg of God 1 Cor. 15. 1 Cor. 5.1 2 Cor. 6. and that such Fornication was found among them as was not heard of among the Heathen For what fellowship hath light with darkness Surely none Our morning shadows fall as far as they can toward the West Evening toward the East Plutarch Noon day toward the North c. Alexander having a souldier of his name that was a coward he bade him either leave off the name of Alexander or be a souldier Verse 5. And God called the light Day c. He taught men to call them so Day from the noise and hurry Night from the yelling of wild beasts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darknesse he created not but onely by accident and yet not that without some notable use Much lesse that darknesse of affliction which he is said to create Esa 45.7 Vnto the upright there ariseth light in darknesse yea light by darknesse Psal 112.4 as to Paul whose bodily blindnesse opened the eyes of his minde Opera Dei sunt in mediis coâ—trariis saith Luther Gods workes are effected usually by contraries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naziâ—nz Laerâ—ius And the evening and the morning c. Thales one of the seven Sages had learned this truth by going to Schoole in Egypt For being asked whether was first the Day or the Night he answered that the Night was sooner by one Day As who should say afore God had created the light it must needs be confessed that out of him there was nothing but darknesse Evening seperates by darknesse morning by light so the one dis-joynes day from night the other night from day Onely this first evening seperated not because light was then uncreated Yet was it of God appointed even then to stand betwixt light and darknesse In the first Evening was Heaven and Earth created and in the first Morning the light 2 Cor. 11.25 both which make the civill day called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Apostle And this which doubtlesse is the naturall order of reckoning the day Pliâ— lib. 2. c. 7 from evening to evening was in use among the Athenians and is to this day retained by the Jewes Italians Bohemians Si esians and other Nations Our life likewise is such a day and begins with the darke evening of misery here but death is to Saints the day-breake of eternall brightnesse Morning lasteth but till morning Nay Psal 30.5 not so long for Behold at even-tide trouble and before the morning he is not Esay 17.14 It is but a moment yea a very little moment and the indignation will pertransire be overpast saith the Prophet Esa 16.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb 6.10.37 so little a while as you can scarce imagine saith the Apostle If it seem otherwise to any of us consider 1 That we have some lucida intervalla some respites interspiriates breathing whiles And it is a mercy that the man is not alwayes sweating out a poor living Gen. 3. Rom. 6.23 the woman ever in pangs of child-birth c. 2 That this is nothing to eternity of extreamity which is the just hire of the least sin 3 That much good accrues unto us hereby Heb. 12.10 Yea this light affliction which is but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.17 worketh out unto us that far most excellent and eternall weight of glory Oh pray pray that the eyes of our understanding being enlightned by that Spirit of wisdome and râ—vellation we may know what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints c. Eph. 1.17 18. Verse 6. Let there be a firmament Yet not so firme but it shall be dissolved 2 Pet. 3.11 That it is not presently so that those windowes of heaven are not opened as once in the deluge having no better a bar then the liquid ayre and we suddenly buried in one universall grave of waters see a miracle of Gods mercy and thanke him for this powerfull word of his Let there be a firmament Bartholinus tells us that in the yeare of Christ 1551. a very great multitude of men and cattell were drowned by a terrible tempest the clouds suddenly dissolving and the waters pouring downe againe Barthol lib. 2 de meteoris with such a strange stupendious violence that the massie walls of many Cities divers Vineyards and faire houses were utterly destroyed and ruined Clouds those bottles of raine are vessells as thin as the liquor which is contained in them D. H. Conteâ—p There they hang and move though weighty with their burdens How they are upheld saith a Reverend Divine and why they fall here and now we know not and wonder Job 26.8 They water our lands as we doe our gardens and are therefore called our heavens Deut. 33.28 Verse 7. Waters which were above the firmament That is the clouds and watery meteors above the lower region of the ayre where Gods pavillion round about him is darke waters Psal 18.11 Jer. 10.13 and thicke clouds of the skies These he weighes by measure not a drop falls in vaine or in a wrong place Job 28.15 And this is the first heaven As the second is the starry skie which is firme and fast as a molten looking-glasse Job 37.18 To this heaven some that have calculated curiously have found it 500 yeares journey Others say that if a stone should fall from from the eight sphere and should passe every houre an hundreth miles Burton of Melancholly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Câ—lo texâ— 99. Deut. 10.14 Luke 22.42 Luke 16.22 Job 14.2 Heb. 12.22 Heb. 11.14 it would be 65 yeares or more before it would come to ground Beyond this second heaven Aristotle acknowledgeth none other Beyond the moveable heavens saith he there is neither body nor time nor place nor Vacuum But
c. Note this against Anabaptists who exclude Infants for that they want the use of reason And yet that was but a foolish reason of the Canonist that Infants are therefore to be baptised Sphinx Philos pag. 229. because the Disciples brought to our Saviour not the Asse onely but the Foal also Vers 12. This is the tâ—ken of the Covenant c. See here the antiquity of confirming mens faith by outward signs as by the two trees in Paradise and here the Word and Sacrament go together And as God in Noah made a Covenant with his posterity also and confirmed it with a sign so doth he in Christ with the Church and ratified it with the Sacraments besides witnesses we have three in heaven and three in earth c. Vers 13. I doe set my bow in the cloud c. There it was before but not till now as a token of the Covenant as still it is applyed for a sign of grace from God to his Church Rev. 4.3 and 10.1 Ezek. 1.28 It is planted in the clouds as if man were shooting at God and not God at man This bow with both ends downward and back to heaven must needs be an emblem of mercy for he that shooteth holdeth the back of the bow from him Of Gods bow we read Ambros but not of his arrows saith Ambrose on this text Psal 7.12 13. He hath bent his bow and made it ready saith David but if he ordain his arrows it is not but against the perseâ—â—tours If he shoot at his servants it is as Jonathan shot at his friend David to warn them not to wound them They are arrows of the Lords deliverance 2 King 13.17 19. Psal 32.7 which therefore he multiplyes that they may compass him about with songs of deliverance If he bend his bow like an enemy Lam. â— 4 yet in wrath he remembreth mercy Vers 14. The bow shall be seen in the cloud In this heaven-bow there are many wonders First the beautifull shape and various colours In which respect Plato thinks the Poets feign Iris or the Rainbow to be the daughter of Thanmas or admiration The waterish colours therein signifie say some the former overthrow of the world by water The fiery colours the future judgement of the world by fire The green that present grace of freedome from both by vertue of Gods Covenant whereof this bow is a sign Next the Rainbow hath in it two contrary significations viz. of rain and fair-weather of this in the evening of that in the morning saith Scaliger Adde hereunto that whereas naturally it is a sign of rain and is therefore feigned by the Poets to be the messenger of Junâ— and called imbrifera or showry yet it is turned by God into a sure sign of dry weather and of restraint of waters Let us learn to look upon it not onely in the naturall causes as it is an effect of the Sun in a thick cloud but as a Sacramentall sign of the Covenant of Grace Esa 54.9 10. a monument of Gods both Justice in drowning the world and Mercy in conserving it from the like calamity The Jews have an odd conceit That the name Jehovah is written on the Rainbow And therefore as oft as it appeareth unto them they go forth of doors Maimoâ—y hide their eyes confess their sins that deserved a second deluge and celebrate Gods goodness in sparing the wicked world and remembring his Covenant Set aside their superstition and their practice invites our imitation Bern. Tam Dei meminisse opui est quam respirare Vers 15 16. I will remember That is I will make you to know and remember by this visible Monitor Segniùs irritant animum demissa per aures Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus The Rainbow is a double Sacrament answering both to Baptism and the Lords Supper and declares by its colours saith One how Christ came by water and blood 1 John 5.6 Vers 17. This is the token of the Covenant This is often repeated that it may be the better observed and we full assured Deut. 6.7 Exacues ea iâ— est accuratè commodissimè inculcabis Buxtorf Lexic as Pharaohs dream was for this cause doubled God goes over the same thing often with us as the knif doth the Whetstone which is the Scripture-allusion He well knows how slow of heart we are and how dull of hearing and therefore whets and beats things of high concernment upon us that we may once apprehend and embrace them Revel 10.1 Revel 10.1 exp Christ is said to have a Rainbow on his head to shew that he is faithful and constant in his promises and that tempests shall blow over Let us see Gods love in his corrections as by a Rainbow we see the beautiful image of the Suns light in the midst of a dark and waterish cloud Vers 20. And Noah began to be an husbandman Veteres si quem virum bonum colonum appellassent amplissime laudasse existimabant Cic. Nunquam vilior erat annona Romae referente Pliuio quà m cum terram colerent iidem qui Remp. regerent quasi gauderet terra laureato vomere scilicet Aratore triumphali See 2 Chron. 26.10 And he planted a vineyard Hence Berosus and the Poets call him Janus Oenotrius Janus of the Hebrew iajin vinum and Oenotrius of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence our English word Wine Vers 21. And was drunk For his own shame but our learning Instruunt nos patres tum docentes tum labentes Augustin The best have their blemishes and a black-part as that cloud had that conducted Israel out of Egypt Heb. 12.1 which while the Egyptians followed they fell into the Sea And was uncovered within his tent Operta recludit One hours drunkenness bewrayes that which more then six hundred yeers sobriety had modestly concealed Well might Solomon say Wine is a mocker For it mocked Noah with a witness and exposed him to the mockage of his own bosom-bird Vers 22. And Ham the father of Canaan saw The Hebrews say That Canaan first saw it and then shewed it to Ham his father who looks upon it with delight Vt vultures ad malè olentia feruntur saith Basil As carrion-kites are carried after stinking carcases And told his two brethren without Sic impii hodiè ex Ecclesiae tragoediis comoedias componunt How glad are the wicked if they can but get any hint to lay hold on whereby to blaspheme Jere. 20.10 and blaze abroad the Saints infirmities Report say they and wee 'l report yea rather then want matter against Gods people they 'll suck it out of their own fingers ends But if such a thing as this fall out that Noah be drunk though but once in an age the banks of blasphemy will soon be broken down and the whole race of Religious persons must rue for it among these Canaanites some also will be found to excuse them
stood leaning upon a desk while he slept eating little and speaking not much When he was asked how he did he would answer That he was chastised justly by God in whose hand it was what should at length become of him here But of his eternal salvation by the merits of Christ alone he nothing doubted being chastised of the Lord that he might not be condemned with the world The prints of his feet are to be seen in the pavement where he stood to this day saith the Historian After seven yeers suffering he departed in the true Faith of Christ with good hopes of a better estate in Heaven September the eleventh Anno 1552. A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren In which title the Pope of Rome not without the providence of God will needs be his successor A servant of Gods servants he will by all means be called And yet he stamps upon his coyn That Nation and Countrey that will not serve thee shall be rooted out What pride equal to the Popes making Kings kiss his Pantofles upon which he hath Christs Cross shining with Pearls and precious stones Vt plenis faucibus crucem Christi derideat Sands his Relation of West relig sect 12. What humility greater then his shriving himself daily to an ordinary Priest One while he will be filled Servus servorum Dei another while Dominus regnorum mundi which is one of the Devils titles yea Dominus Deus noster Papa Johan 23. iâ— Extravag taking upon him a power to excommunicate the very Angels also yea lifting up himself above Christ who is called Pontifex Magnus Hebrews 4.14 but the Pope calls himself Pontifex maximus Gregory the Great was the first that stiled himself A servant of servants in opposition forsooth to that proud Prelate of Constantinople who affected to be called Vniversal Bishop But after the death of Mauricius Phâ—cae adularâ— suppariseri c. Ut suam poâ—â—statem per favorem parricidae extenderet Revii hist pontif p. 45. when Phocas the Traytor came to be Emperor this Gregory clawed him shamefully and all to attain that dignity and dominion that he so much condemned in another The Pope of Constantinople could not bear a superior nor the Pope of Rome an equal The one sought to subdue to himself the East the other East and West too and thence grew all the heat betwixt them See the like ambition under the colour of zeal for their Religion in Selymus the Turk and Hismael the Persian Turk histor foliâ— 515. Vers 26. Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. Shem seems to have been the chief actor and perswader of that reverent behavior and therefore as he is first named Vers 23. before his elder brother Japhet so here he hath the first and chief blessing It is good to be first in a good matter yea prompt and present to every good work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 3.1 as Paul hath it And Canaan shall be hâ—s servant This curse was not fulfilled of many hundred yeers after till the sins of the Amorites were grown full and then it was accomplished Gods forbearance is no acquittance He can also turn a curse into a blessing as he did this to Araunah the Jebusite 2 Sam. 5.7 of the worst and most stubborn of the Canaanites For they held the Tower of Jebus from the posterity of Sem after all the rest had yielded Yet he became a godly Proselyte and gave as a King his free-hold to King David to build an Altar on 2 Sam. 24.18 And this deed of his was long after remembred Zach. 9.7 The like may be said of the Gibeonites who are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah They were made servants to the Shemites drawers of water to the Temple as a kinde of punishment God made this Cross a Mercy Their employment so near the house of God gave them fit occasion to be partakers of the things of God And the Lord we see did wonderfully honor them the nearer they were to the Church the nearer to God It is good getting into his house though to be but a door-keeper with David or a tankard-bearer with these Gibeonites Stand but in Gods way as he passeth and thou shalt be preferred Vers 27. God perswade Japhet Formone else can do it Men may speak perswasively but to perswade is proper to God alone He speaks to the heart Hos 2.14 we to the ear onely He perswadeth and allureth not onely by a moral perswasion but by an irresistible inward drawing Acts 11.17 In the Hebrew there is a sweet Agnomination q. d. God shall perswade the perswasible He shall draw them to faith and obedience Monendo potiùs quà m minando docondo quà m ducendo saith Saint Austin by informing not inforcing He brings in his Elect by a merciful violence He sent forth at first not swordmen but fisher-men and prevailed by them in those places Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loâ—a Christo tamen subditâ— Tertul. where the Romans could never come with all their forces Elisha could do more with a kiss then his man could do with a staff in raising the dead childe Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth Cant. 1.2 And then follows Draw me we will run after thee And he shall dwell in the tents of Sem. The Churches abode here is but in tents She hath no continuing City on earth Heb. 13.14 1 Tim. 3.16 but seeks one to come This whether prophecy or prayer was fulfilled when God manifested in the flesh was preached unto the Gentiles and beleeved on in the world some thousands of yeers after The Gentiles were converted by vertue of this prayer as Paul was by Saint Stevens and as we enjoy the Gospel by Latimers yet once more and the prayers of other Martyrs Vers 28 29. And Noah lived after the flood c. This man if ever any that was born of a woman had a long life Job 14.1 and full of misery He saw the tenth generation after him before his death But oh how oft was he occasioned to get under the Juniper-tree with Elias and desire to dye Before the flood what a deal of wickedness and disorder beheld he in family Church and Common-wealth and all this punished by the deluge to his unspeakable heart-break Soon after he was mockt by his own son and despised by almost all the rest of his posterity whose unheard-of hardiness in building the Tower of Babel he was nolens volens forced to see and suffer and then shortly after the confusion of tongues as their just punishment What should I speak of their so many and so great cruelties insolencies tyrannical usurpations effusions of innocent blood wars stirs strifes superstitions and abominable idolatries under Nimrod Jupiter Belus Semiramis Vix mihi persuadeo virum ex homiâ—e miseriorem natum fuâ—sse quam Noah Funccii Chron. fol. 17. Zoroaster the Magick-Master and other Emims and Zamzummims of the Earth Of
the Artificer cannot so well shew his workmanship â—ee Mr. Valent Fast Serm. And though the power of God will shew it self wheresoever he intends to make a vessel of Mercy yet it is with more ado and will cost a man the more sorrow and him that hath the working of it the more pains Vers 15. Before he had done speaking So quick is God many times in the answer of prayers Isai 65.24 Dan. 9.23 The Angel had even tired himself with flight to tell Daniel that his prayers were heard David did but say I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and before he could do it God forgave the iniquity of his sin Psal 32.5 Rebeccah came out She took her name saith One as it may seem Itineraâ— Script pag. 97. from the expectation of eternal life For Rebecca denoteth a woman which expecteth a free delivery from all calamity and an inheritance of eternal life Therefore she is a notable type of the Church which is the Spouse of Christ shadowed in Isaac Vers 16. And the damosel was very fair 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aelian var. hist. l. 12. c. 1. Fair and wise as it was said of Aspasia Milesia Here beauty was not ill bestowed as a Gold-Ring in a Swines Snout but as the History reports of the Lady Jane Gray adorned with all variety of moral Vertues as a clear Skie with Stars Life of Edw. 6. p. 176. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bucholcer as a princely Diadem with Jewels Beauty is of it self very attractive as the Poet hath it For which cause Heraclonas the young Emperor of Constantinople being sent into banishment together with Martina his mother had his nose cut off lest his beauty should move the people to pity And Angli tanquà m Angeli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod ab 〈◊〉 veâ—cratio Sic â—aâ—â—us quasi 〈◊〉 ornatus said Gregory the Great of the English boyes presented to him How much more when accompanyed and accomplished with Chastity as in this Damosel A Virgin neither had any man known her This latter clause is added because many pass for Virgins that are not so if that of the Poet be true especially Quae quia non licuit non facit illa facit and that of the Orator 〈◊〉 in declanâ—t Incesta est sine stupro quae stuprum eupit The Romans cashiered a Vestal Virgin for uttering this Verse Foelices nuptae moriar nisi nubere dulce est The Strumpet when she eats ftoln bread hath such dexterity in wiping her lips that not the least crum shall be seem to her shame So that Solomon shews it to be as hard to finde it out Prov. 30.18 19 20. As the way of an Eagle in the ayr the way of a Serpent upon a Rock the way of a Ship in the Sea and the way of a man with a maid that is a close and chaste Virgin Muffet in locum one that should be haste at least as being kept close from the access of strangers Filled her pitcher and came up Here was no tarrying gazing gosâ—ipping Not slothful in business Rom. 12.11 She had not been delicately or wantonly bred but inured to hard labor Thucyd. lib. 2. and she followed it close Thucydides scribit Lacedaemoniis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 20. And ran again to the Well In the City of Haran at this day saith One there is to be seen a Well of very clear water where Rebecca gave drink to Eleazer and his Camels there likewise Rachel Labans daughter first spake to Jacob c. It is called by the Townsmen Abrahams Well This water hath a very pleasant taste Itinerar Script p. 83. and is a notable type of holy Baptism For as the Patriarchs took their Wives by this Well so Christ receiveth his Spouse the Church by that Sacrament which is Beersheba the Well of an Oath where we pass into the Covenant and are betrothed unto Christ in faithfulness Hos 2.20 the Thistle to the Cedar 2 King 19.4 Vers 22. The man took a golden Ear-ring Abiliment or Jewel Vt imponeret naso ejus saith Junius to hang upon her nose or forehead as vers 47. Each Countrey hath their fashions and garnishes In very many places of America they have their lower lips bored through as likewise the upper parts of their ears and something put into them Archb. Abbots Geog. 278. Which as it seems to themselves to be a point of beauty so it makes them appear to others to be wondrous ugly Vers 25. She said moreover unto him c. It is well observed by an Interpreter Aiâ—sworth that in the Narration of this story which yet seemeth to be of light and trivial matters the Spirit of God is very exact and large whereas other things wherein great Mysteries are infolded as the History of Melchisedech c. are set down in few words That men might consider Gods Wisdom and Providence in things of least esteem amongst men I adde that all may see what delight he takes in the meanest actions and speeches of his dearest children when the great acts and exploits of Nimrod Ninus and other Grandees of the world are not once mentioned but lye shrouded in the sheet of oblivion or shame Vers 26. And the man bowed down his head See how he rellisheth of his masters house and sheweth a gracious heart ready to offer up a sacrifice of praise whereever God shall please to set it up an Altar The same word in Greek signifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace and Thanks to shew that as any man hath more grace he is more grateful to God and man It is observable also that our Saviour sets these two together the unthankful and the evil Luke 6.35 He is kinde to the unthankful and the evil Vers 30. These make earth their throne Heaven their footstool August When he saw the ear-ring and bracelâ—ts These were the bones that Laban looked after these drew the churl forth and made him so courteous Worldlings in serving God serve themselves of God they follow him for loaves more then for love Vix diligitur Jesus propter Jesum Hypocrites would use Christ as a bridg to get to Heaven by which if they could compass let Christ fink or swim for them they would not much care Their love is meretricious their obedience mercenary they work onely for wages Fac me pontificem ero Christianus Ezra 2.62 said one Pammachius a Heathen to the Pope Those degenerate Priests would fain have had Priâ—sts places when something was to be got but might not Vers 33. I will not eat till I have told mine errand He preferred his work before his food So did our Saviour at the Well of Samaria John 4. And another time when he thought to have slaked his hunger at the barren fig-tree and found nothing but leaves he went on to Jerusalem and forgetting his hunger as
Patrone And such for most part are court commendations There you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said of old delayes and changes good store every man seeking and serving his own aims and ends but little minding the good of others further then subservient to their own Vers 10. Pharaoh was wroth with his servants c. It is wisdome in a man to confess his faults before the Prince whom he hath offended and to commend his clemency in pardoning them Orat. pro. M. Marcello Q. Ligario c. As Tully did Caesars as Mephibosheth did Davids c. The Lord Cobham the L. Gray Sir Griffin Markham being condemned for treason about the beginning of King James Anno 1603 B. Carletons thankefull remembrance of Gods mercies pag. 181. and brought forth to execution as they were upon the scaffold the Sheriffe notified the Kings pardon his Majesties warrant for the stay of the execution at which unexpected clemency besides the great shouts of the people the condemned wished that they might sacrifice their lives to redeem their fault and to repurchase so mercifull a Princes love Vers 11. Each man according to the interpretation That is no vain dreame but significant and deserving an interpreter Vers 12. And he interpreted to us our dreams And well you requited him but better late then never Paerstat sero quam nunquam though a ready dispatch doubleth the benefit howbeit God had an over-ruling hand in it for Iosephs greatest good he turneth the worlds ingratitude to the salvation of his servants Vers 13. As he interpreted to us so it was Semblably as Christ foretold the two theeves with whom he suffered so it fell out the one went to Heaven the other to Hell And so it shall fare with all men at last day according to Isai 3.10.11 Vers 14. And they brought him hastily Heb. They made him run who haply knew not what this haste and hâ—rry meant but was betwixt hope and fear till he came to the King It is God that bringeth low and lifteth up that raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the begger from the dunghill to set him among Princes c. 1 Sam. 2.7 8. In the year of Grace 1622. The Turkish Janizaries who have learned that damnable art of making and unmaking their King at pleasure drew Mustapha whom they had formerly deposed out of prison and when he begged for his life they assured him of the Empire and carrying him forth upon their shoulders Mustapha subita illâ— mutatione qua ex carcere ad summam diguitatem potentiam evectus erat ita commetus fuit ut animi deliquium pateretur c. Parei Medul pag. 1165. Dan. hist of Engl. p. 48. cryed with a loud voyce This is Mustapha Sultan of the Turks God save Mustapha c. with which sudden change the man was so affected that he fell into a swoon for joy and they had much adoe to keep life in him Our Henry fourth was crowned the very same day that the year before he had been banished the Realm And changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh And should not we get on our best when we are to come before God Should we accost him in the nasty tattered rags of the old Adam and not spruse up our selves with the best of our preparation Vers 15. I have dreamed a dream and there is none c. So men send not for the Minister till given up by the Physitian Then they cry out with him in the Gospel Mark 9.22 Sir if thou canst do any thing help us c. Whereunto what can we reply but as that king of Israel did to the woman that cryed to him for help 2 King 6.27 in the famine of Samaria If the Lord help theâ— not whence shall I help thee out of the barn-floor or out of the wine-press Did not I forewarn you saying touch not the unclean thing c. and ye would not hear Gen. 42.22 with 2 Cor. 6.17 Amor ingenii â—eminem unquam diviâ—â—â— secit Petron. Nescio quâ—modo bonae mentis soror est paupertas Ib. Therefore is this thing come upon you And I have heard say c. Pharaoh despiseth not wisdome how meanly soever habited Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Paupertas est philosophia vernacula saith he in Apuleius And Eumolpus in Petronius being asked why he went so poorly apparrelled answered the study of wisdome never made any man wealthy And afterward he addeth however it comes to pass poverty is the sister of piety and vertue is forsaken of fortunne Nudus opum sed cui coelum terraeque paterent saith Silius of Archimedes that great Mathematician And Aelian observes Aelian l. 2. Lactantius quasi quidam fluvius Tulliaâ—ae eloquentiae Hieror that the best of the Greeks Aristides Phocion Pelopidas Epaminondas Socrates were very poor men Lactantius that Christian Cicero as Hierome calleth him was so needy that he wanted necessaries All that Calvin left behinde him books and all came scarce to three hundred French crowns as Bozâ— his colleague witnesseth Vers 16. It is not in me God shall give Pharaoh c. This is the voyce of all that have true worth in them they are humble upon the knowledg of their perfections they vilifie and nullifie themselves before God and men like true balme that put into water sinks to the bottome or like a vessel cast into the Sea which the more it fills the deeper it sinks And this is the bottome and bosome of humility and very next degree to exaltation as here Vers 25. The dream of Pharaoh is one One in signification but diverse in respect of vision Why it was doubled see ver 32. Repetitions in Scripture are not tautologies but serve to set forth to us the necessity excellency or difficulty of the thing so re-inforced To write to the Philippians the same things to S. Paul it is not grievous and for them it is safe Phil. 3.1 Seneca Nunquà m satis dicitur quod nunquà m satis discitur Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros Iuven Away then with those nice Novellists that can abide to hear nothing but what is new-minted Ministers meet with many that are slow of heart and dull of hearing these must have precept upon precept line upon line c. Many also of brawny breasts and horny-heart strings that as ducklings stoop and dive at any little stone thrown by a man at them yet shrink not at the heavens great thunder c. Here a Minister must beat and inculcate turn himself into all fashions of spirit and speech to win and work upon his hearers He must so long pursue and stand upon one and the same point saith Austin till Aug. de doct Christ in Psal 10. Psal 49.1.2 by the gesture and countenance of his Auditors he perceives they understand and assent to it Hear this all ye people give ear all ye
called Mneves as Diodorus Siculus relateth and Monios as Aben-Ezra Musaeus calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Water-sprung becaus drawn as David was afterwards out of manie waters Psal 18. ver 17. Ver. 11. When Moses was grown In stature and autoritie beeing mightie in words and deeds Act. 7.22 beeing a great Orator a great warriour See the Note on Heb. 11.24 Hee was as Plinie saith of Cato Censorius optimus Orator optimus Imperator optimus Senator omniúmque bonarum artium magister a man everie waie accomplish't That hee went out unto his Brethren Associateing himself to them though afflicted and refusing the pleasures and treasures of Egypt for hee had respect to the recompens of reward Heb. 11.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee cast an eie hee stole a look from glorie when hee was on his journie and so got fresh encouragement Ver. 12. Hee slew the Egyptian This deed of his was heroïck and extraordinarie and therefore not to bee imitated by every Birchet who by this example of Moses and that other of Ehud persuaded himself it was lawful to kill such as oppose the truth of the Gospel Camdens Elisa fol. 174. whereupon hee wounded Hawkins slew his keeper and thought hee had a calling to kill a great personage in this Kingdom whom hee took to bee God's enemie The like madness is reported of the Monasterian Anabaptists Master Baylies disswas par 2. Vers 13. Behold two men of the Hebrews strove What pitie was it that brethren should strive and one Hebrew smite another as if blows enow were not dealt them by the Egyptians Still Satan is thus busie and Christians are thus malicious Thus wee have seen doves beat and sheep butt one another Vers 14. And hee said Yea hee thrust Moses awaie Act. 7.27 Doing wickedly with both hands earnestly Mich. 7. This act of his is imputed to the whole people who therefore were deprived of Moses for fortie years So true is that of the wise man One sinner destroieth much good Eccles 9.18 Vers 15. But Moses fled God by fortie years exile sitted Moses for further light and advancement Much hee had learned in Egypt Act. 7.22 but more in Midian Master Ascham was a good Schoolmaster to Q. Elisabeth but Affliction was a better Men commonly beat and bruis their links before they light them to make them burn the brighter Moses had neither been so illuminate a Doctor nor so excellent a Ruler if not first humbled as here Vers 16. Now the priest Or Prince The old Egyptians chose their Kings from among the Priests Samuel was both a Priest and a Judg in Israel The Emperor of Rome had for one of his Titles Pontifex Maximus the High-Priest Among the Turks the Judges at this daie are ever Ecclesiastical persons Blunts voiage pag. 89. whereby both Orders joined give reputation to one another and manteinance And they came and drew water They were not so delicately bred as our daintie dames are now-a daies but did earn it before they eat it Vers 17. And drove them away From the water that they had drawn and so had most right unto Sic cedit viribus aequum Might oft overcom's right see here what wee ow to good laws well executed No man els should enjoie so much as his own water Vers 18. To Revel their father Indeed their grand-father Num. 10.29 Old men are usually about hom and can do little els but see to things and advise Vers 19. Delivered us out of the hand Moses if hee may not in Egypt hee will bee doing justice in Midian Christ went about doing good the place is the better wherever a good man cometh his trade saith one is a compound of charitie and justice Ver. 20. Call him that hee may eat bread If the watering of a sheep were thus rewarded how shall God recompens a cup of cold water given to those of his little Flock Ver. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lycophron Zipporah his daughter a peevish piece a cold armful Hee had better haply have been married to a quartan ague Sylla felix si non hahuisset uxorem c. It is not ill to marrie but good to bee warie lest wee make shipwrack in the haven Ver. 22. I have been a stranger So wee are all whiles here Our own place is paradise haste to it Ver. 23. Sighed by reason of their Bondage They had changed their masters but not their miseries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but seldom com's a better Job's stroke was heavier then his groaning chap. 23.2 Ver. 24. God heard their groaning Yea their breathing Lam. 3.56 men's verie miserie crie's to God as Hagar's did Ver. 25. Had respect Heb. Knew them Hee knew their souls in adversitie Psal 31.7 CHAP. III. Ver. 1. To the back-side of the desert HEre it was that Moses wrote the book of GENESIS and that of Job too Alsted Chron. as som conceiv for the comfort of his poor oppressed countrie-men in Egypt that they might lean upon and live by faith in the promises made to the Fathers Ver. 2. And the Angel of the Lord Christ that Angel of the Covenant and of the great Counsel And the bush was not consumed No more is the Church whereof this is an excellent embleme by the fire of tribulation Isa 43.2 becaus of the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush Deut 33.16 Ver. 3. I will now turn aside and see Moses came out of curiositie but was called by God so do manie to the ordinances for noveltie as the Jewes did to John Baptist or for som other sinister respect to catch it may bee and are caught as those Job 7.46 Or as Austin who coming to Ambrose to have his ears tickled had his heart touched It is good to hear howsoever Com said Latimer to the publick meetings though thou commest to sleep It may bee God may take thee napping Absence is without hope what a deal lost Thomas by beeing but once absent This great vision Great indeed there was a flame of sire els how was the bush burning There was light els how did Moses see it There was no heat els how was not the bush consumed Yet in everie of God's afflicted saith One you may see this great vision The voice of the Lord in his affliction as in this fire divideth the heat from the light so that hee is not consumed by the heat nay rather his infirmities and carnal concupiscences are consumed thereby but onely illuminated by the light See the Note on chap. 2.15 Vers 4. And when the Lord saw c. God meeteth him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness Isa 64.5 Acti agimus The Miller cannot command a winde yet hee will spread his sails bee in the waie to have it if it com As our libertie in external acts is still som as to com to church to hear to repeat c. so must our indevors bee answerable Vers 5. Draw not nigh Bee not rash but reverent Heathens could
do Pharaoh good Ver. 20. Hee that feared the Lord As few will do till they feel his hand Bradford But they that tremble not in hearing shal bee crush't to pieces in feeling said that Martyr Ver. 21. And hee that regardeth not This was doubtless the greater number Qualis Rex talis grex This was a just presage and desert of ruin not to bee warned Ver. 22. Stretch forth thy hand i. e. Thy rod in thine hand ver 23. Ver. 23. And the fire ran along upon the ground such hail-stones and coals of fire wee also read of Psal 18.13 14 15. Isa 30.30 31. and in the Roman historie when Marcus Antonius the Philosopher fought with the Quades 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the praiers of the thundering legion as they were afterwards called of the Christians rain was obtained to the refreshing of the Roman armie ingens grando compluraque fulminâ— in hostes ceciderunt Itaque Dio in vita M. Ant. Phil. licebat videre in eodem loco aquam ignemque simul de coelo cadere atque obcam causam Romanos valere ac bibere Quados exuri penitùs interire i. e. A huge hail and manie light-bolts fell upon the enemie Fire and water fell at once from heaven the Romans drank of the water and were relieved the Quades were burn't by the fire and perished Ver. 25. And break everie tree of the field Here was strages clades horrenda yet Pharaoh's heart is not broken Aug. but remain's obdurate Perdidistis fructum afflictionis was an heavie charge Ducklings stoop and dive at anie little stone thrown by a man at them yet shrink not at the heavens great thunder Ver. 26. Onely in the land of Goshen See the note on chap. 8. ver 23. Dio reports further of the fire forementioned ver 23. That that fire from heaven either fell not at all upon the Romans or if it did it was presently quenched neither did the waters help the Quades Dio ubi suprà but inflamed them as if it had been oil so that they called for water to cool them when the rain fell upon them and wounded their own bodies to quench the fire with their blood Ver. 27. The Lord is righteous See the note on chap. 5. ver 2. Ver. 28. I will let you go But though hee spake thus fair Prov. 26.25 believ him not for there are seven abominations in his heart No sooner was Pharaoh off the rack but hee bite's in his confession and retract's his promise Ver. 29. I will spread abroad mine hands viz In praier holding up and out the palmes of the hanâ— as those do that exspect to receiv an almes in a having manner So did Solomon 2 Chron. 6.13 See Psalm 143.6 Ezr. 9.9 That the earth is the Lords See the note on ver 14. Ver. 30. That yee will not yet fear Howbâ—it I will praie for you and you shall feel the fruit of it Thus God is good to the just and unjust Matt. 5. Ver. 34. But sinned yet more As iron is verie soft and malleable while in the fire but soon after return's to its former hardness So here CHAP. X. Ver. 1. For I have hardened his Heart AS hee that bring 's in a light blinde's an Owl or as hee that powr's on water kindle's the Lime whereupon it is powred so the Lord by publishing his commands and by doing his miracles hardened the heart of Pharaoh who for his wilful rebellion was justly forsaken of God and delivered up to his own heart which is somwhat wors them to bee delivered up to the divel Ver. 2. And that thou maiest tell The memorie of God's magnalia great works must bee transmitted to posteritie Vt nati natorum qui nascentur ab illis that after-Ages may hear and fear this great God See 1 Sam. 4. ver 8. Ver. 3. How long wilt thou refuse God think 's long of the time that men misspend and waste in wicked courses Jer. 4.14 and 13.27 It is a savorie saying of Bernard Totum vitae meae tempus perdidi quia perditè vixi the time of my loosness I have utterly lost Ver. 4. Els if thou refuse Men should look up with David and see the punishing Angel over their heads with a drawn sword and submit As if not Balaam's Aâ—s shal condemn them for their desperate Lewdness for hee fell down before the Angel Si quâ—ties peccent homiues c. I will bring the locusts God hath treasuries of plagues for the obstinate neither câ—n hee bee as the Poet feared of his Jupiter possibly exhausted Ver. 5. And they shall cover For they go forth by heaps Pro. 30.27 and huge multiudes Jud 6.5 And shall eat everie tree See Joel 1.7 Plin. lib. 11. cap. 29. Ver. 6. And hee turned himself No man may turn himself to go out of the great Turk's presence Turk Hist but must go backward till hee bee out of the room Dissention talling out between Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Essex about a fit man for Government of Ireland hee uncivilly turned his back as it were in contempt with a scornful look Camden's Elis fol. 494. Shee waxing impatient gave him a cuff on the ear bidding him com again when shee sent for him c. But Moses may not bee imagined to have so turned himself Ver. 7. And Pharaob's servants said unto him They were convinced and mollified though hee was not Whom Hee will God hardeneth Rom 9.18 How long shall this man bee a snare unto us Hee was not the snare but their own sin Pre. 29.6 Howbeit hee must bear the blame As if som sond people should accuse the Herald or the Trumpet as the caus of their war oras if som ignorant peasant when hee see 's his fowls bathing in his Pond should crie out of them as the causses of foul weather Ver. 8. And Moses and Aaron were brought c. Somthing the tyrant would seem to yield to his Counsellors and not to deal by them as the Persian Monarchs who were wont to advise with their Peers but if anie of them delivered that which was contrarie to the King's minde flagris caedebantur Keckerman they were whipped which is a punishment also usually inflicted at this daie by the great Turk even upon the greatest Bassa's of the Court Tuâ—k Hist upon the least displeasure Ver. 9. For wee must hold a Feast See the Note on Exodus 5. ver 1. Ver. 10. Let the Lord bee so with you In cursing them hee unwittingly blessed them Exod. 12.30 31. and 13.21 22. See Psal 109.28 Cursing men are Cursed men But God's people fare the better for beeing cursed Let them curs but do thou bless is not more a Praier then a Prophecie Ver. 12. Even all that the hail hath left How easily can God straiten yea starv us all if hee but send forth his forraging Armies Joel 1.6 Ver. 13. An East-winde The proper and
at first doubted till overcom by Hierom's arguments Augustin Ver. 24. Eie for eie How the Pharisees had wrested that Text See the Note on Mat. 5.39 This kinde of law in use among Heathens also Aristotle call's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and was given against private revenge Ver. 28. Then the ox shall bee surely stoned God requiring man's blood even of beasts Gen. 9.5 See the Note there Ver. 29. Hee hath killed a man c. Since the fall all creatures are armed against us as that sword which Hector gave Ajax which so long as hee used against men his enemies served for help and defence but after hee began to abuse it to the hurt of hurtless beasts it turned into his own bowels Ver. 32. Thirtie shekels This same was that goodly price that our Lord Christ was valued at by the vile Jews Zach. 11.12 13. Mat. 26.15 Ver. 33. And an ox or an ass Wee can hardly open the deep pit of God's bottomless boundless mercie but som sillie beast will bee falling thereinto stumbling at the Word beeing disobedient whereunto also they were appointed 1 Pet. 2.8 Ver. 36. Ox for ox These where those right judgments true laws good statutes c. Neh. 9.13 CHAP. XXII Ver. 1. When a man shall steal c. THe Persians at this daie punish theft and man-slaughter so severely The Preachers Travels by Cartwright that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or the other The Turk's justice will rather cut off two innocent men then let on thief escape Ver. 2. If a thief bee found So if an adulteress bee taken as shee was John 8.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the verie theft Ver. 3. If the sun bee risen Chaldee hath it If the eie of witnesses if hee can rais the town and call in aid Ver. 4. Hee shall restore double In Solomon's time it was seven-fold Prov. 6.31 Ver. 5. To bee eaten By unadvised turning in of his cattle through mistake or neglect Ver. 6. Or the field The stubble Ver. 7. Or stuff Heb. Vessels instruments ornaments apparel furniture weapons c. Ver. 8. To see whether sc by putting him to his oath Ver. 11. Som think that a private oath may bee in such a case as this lawfully taken for the satisfaction of another if hee will not otherwise bee satisfied Ver. 9. Before the Judges Heb. the Gods So Judges are called if good especially Psal 82.6 And the seat of Judicature is called the holie place Eccles 8.10 Ver. 10. Or anie beast to keep As Jacob kept Laban's cattle Gen. 31.39 Ver. 11. An oath of the Lord Who is called in as a witness and as an avenger how hateful then is that Popish proverb and practise Mercatorum est non regum stare juramentis Ver. 13. Let him bring it A leg or a limb of it as Amos 3.12 Ver. 14. And if a man borrow God hath so ordered humane condition that one man must bee beholden to another Ver. 15. It came for his hire q. d. Hee shall paie the hire onely and no more though the owner bee not by when it miscarrieth Ver. 16. Entice a maid Heb. Over-perswade with her by fair words which make fools fain Ver. 17. Hee shall paie No mulct is laid upon her becaus shee had nothing of her own and shee had lost her honor in losing her virginitie 1 Thes 4.4 See the Note there Ver. 18. A witch An enchantress sorceress whose help was somtimes sought in inticing young maids to follie The man-witch also is here meant Vatab. but the woman-witch mentioned both becaus women are more inclinable to that sin and also becaus the weaker sex is not to bee spared for this fault Junius Ver. 19. Bee put to death Heb. Put him to die Gr. kill him with death as God threatneth to do Jezabel's children Rev. 2.23 Ver. 20. Hee shall bee utterly destroied As an execrable and accursed creature Ver. 21. Thou shalt not vex a stranger The right of strangers is so holie saith one that there was never nation so barbarous that would violate the same When Stephen Gardner had in his power the renowned Divine Peter Martyr Acts and Mon fol. 1783. then teaching at Oxford hee would not keep him to punish him but when hee should go his waie gave him wherewith to bear his charges Ver. 22. Or fatherless childe With God the fatherless findeth mercie Hos 14.3 Widdows and orphans are God's clients taken into his protection Ver. 23. And they crie at all unto mee A vine whose root is uncovered thrive's not so a widdow whose covering of eies is taken away Mercer in Proverb joie's not In Hebrew shee is called Almanach of Alam to bee dumb becaus shee hath none to speak for her But if shee call and crie to God hee will speak for her in the hearts of her oppressors Ver. 24. Your wives shall bee widdows God delight 's to punish crueltie in kinde as hee did in Agag 1 Sam. 15.33 Ver. 25. Thou shalt not bee to him as an usurer Heb. as an exacting creditor Qui nullum diem gratìs occidere creditori permittit The usurer's monie is to necessitie like cold water to a hot ague that for a time refresheth but prolongeth the diseas Laie upon him usurie Heb. Biting usurie Usurers are men-eaters Psalm 14.4 Like pickrels in a pond or sharks in the sea that devour the lesser fishes These ostriches can digest anie metal especially monie Arist Ethic. lib. 4. cap. 1. Aristotle in one page condemneth the usurer and the dicer and yet som Christians blush at neither Ver. 28. Thou shalt not revile the Gods Blaspheme dignities This is blasphemie in the second Table Jude 8. Ver. 29. Thou shalt not delaie True obedience is prompt and present readie and speedie without demur and consults Zech. 5.9 wings and winde in their wings On the eighth daie When a Sabbath had once gon over it saie the Hebrews Ver. 30. Holie men Heb. Men of holiness which should run through our whole lives as the woof doth through the web CHAP. XXIII Ver. 1. Thou shalt not rais NEither rais nor receiv it neither bee the tale-bearer nor tale-hearer the one carrie's the divel in his tongue the other in his ear Not onely those that make a lie but those that love it when it is made to their hands are shut out of heaven Rev. 22.15 Solomon make's it an ill sign of a graceless man to bee apt to beleev scandalous reports of godlie persons Prov. 17.4 Ver. 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude The waie to hell is broad and well-beaten Per viam publicam nè ingredere was one of Pythagoras his precepts Do not as the most do lest thou bee undon for ever Argumentum turpissimum est turba saith Seneca To live according to the cours of the world is to bee acted by the divel Ephes 2.2 Ver. 3. Neither shalt thou countenance Spare not the great for their
Chap. 114. Ver. 8. For the sin-offering first For till un bee expiâ—ted no sacrifice or service can bee accepted Therefore Isa 1. Wash you â—â—ans you and then com and let us reason Ver. 9. Vpon the side of the Altar The North-side and not upon the East 1. that Israël might not symbolize with the Heathens who worshipped toward the East 2. to signifie that they had no more under the Law then dark shadows of good things to com Heb. 10.1 until the time of reformation Heb. 9.10 Ver. 10. According to the manner That is the forms and rites prescribed So Amos 8.14 The manner of Beersheba i.e. the forms and rites of worshipping in Beersheba as the Caldee paraphraseth it Ver. 11. But if hee bee not able So low doth the most High stoop to man's meanness that hee will accept of a verie small present from him that would bring a better if it were in the power of his hand Lycurgus enjoyned his Lacedemonians to offer small sacrifices For God said hee respecteth more the internal devotion then the external oblation Ver. 12. Even a memorial This is spoken after the manner of men who have need of remembrancers God somtimes seem's to lose his mercie and then wee must finde it for him as they Isa 63.15 somtimes to forget sleep delaie c. and then wee must in-minde awaken quicken him Isa 62.7 Ver. 13. And it shall bee forgiven him See a like promiss made to our Ministerie Jam. 5.15 Ver. 15. In the bolie things of the Lord Things consecrate to him by robbing and wronging of God and his Priests bee it but through ignorance or error Sacrum qui clepserit rapseritve parricida este For to do such a thing presumptuously was death Numb 15.30 and by the laws of the twelv Tables in Rome such were to bee punished as parricides Ver. 16. And hee shall make amends No remission without restitution God abhors holocaustum ex rapina Latimer's Sex And if yee make no restitution ye shall cough in hell said father Latimer Ver. 17. Though hee wist not Ignorance though invincible and unavoidable well may excuse à tanto but not à toto Luke 12.48 CHAP. VI. Ver. 2. Against the Lord AS David in defiling his neighbours wise and afterwards killing him is said to have despised the commandment of the Lord and to have don evil in his sight 2 Sam. 12.9 which also hee penitently acknowledgeth Psal 51.4 Sin is properly against none but God Godw. Heb. Antiq. p. 98. beeing a transgression of his law Hence the manslaier was confined to the Citie of refuge as to a prison during the life of the high-Priest as beeing saith one the chief God on earth That was a true position of the Pelagians Omne peccatum est contemptus Dei that everie sin is a contempt of God Prov. 18.3 In fellowship Heb. Job 8.20 Dextram conjungere dextrâ Quid non mortalia pectora cogit Auri sacra fames 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. In putting of the hand It is said in Iob that God will not take a wicked man by the hand i. e. hee will have no fellowship with him Ver. 3. And lieth concerning it and sweareth falsty Thorough inordinate love of money that root of all evil but such monie shall perish with them Zech. 5.2 Ver. 4. And is guiltie Found guiltie by a self-condemning conscience which now like Samson's wife conceal's not the riddle but tel's all as shee said of our Saviour Iohn 4. Ver. 5. In the daie of his trespass offering Before hee compass God's altar Mat. 5.23 with the Note there Ver. 6. With thy estimation i. e. as thou shalt rate it Moses did the Priests office for present Hee was likewise a Prophet Deut. 18.15 and King in Ieshurun Deut. 33.5 and so became a type of Christ that true Trismegist the Priest Prophet and Prince Dan. 9.25 Ver. 7. Shall make an attonement Thorough the sacrifice of Christ Heb. 10.1 4 10 14. Ver. 9. All night until the morning God must bee thought upon in the night season Psal 4.4 David willingly brake his sleep to do it Psal 119.62 The daie is thine the night also is thine saith hee Psal 74.16 Ver. 10. Besides the altar On the East-side furthest from the Sanctuarie Levit. 1.16 in reverence of the divine majestie Ver. 11. In a clean place Becaus they came from the Lord 's holie hous See the contrarie commanded concerning the stones and dust of a leprous hous Levit. 14.40 Ver. 12. It shall not bee put out No more should our faith love zeal that flame of God as Solomon cal's it Cant. 8.6 that should never go out the waters should not quench it nor the ashes cover it Cant. 8.10 2 Tim. 1.6 Ver. 13. The fire shall ever bee burning The Gentiles by an apish imitation hereof had their vestal fire salted meal and manie other sacred rites Basil chargeth the divel as a thief of the truth in that hee had decked his crows with her fethers Ver. 14. The law of the meat-offering Besides what is set down chap. 2.1 2. Thus one text explain's another as the diamond is brightened with its own dust Ver. 15. Even the memorial See the Note on Levit. 2.2 Ver. 16. Shall Aaron and his sons eat See 1 Cor. 9.13 14. with the Note there Ver. 17. It shall not bee baken with leaven Which is 1. souring 2. swelling 3. spreading 4. impuring Ver. 18. Shall bee holie God will bee sanctified in all that draw near unto him procul binc procul este profani Ver. 20. When hee is anointed i. e. When anie high-priest for hee onely was anointed Exod. 29.7 on the head at least Ver. 21. In a pan Figuring out the sufferings of Christ who was so parched with the fire of afflictions for our sins Ver. 23. It shall not bee eaten To teach the high-priest to look â—or salvation out of himself Ver. 25. In the place i. e. at the North-side of the altar And why see the Note on Chap. 5.9 Ver. 26. Shall eat it Except in that case vers 30. Ver. 27. Shall bee holie This taught an holie use of the mysterie of our redemption for the sin-offering in special sort figured Christ Ver. 28. But the earthen vessel So contagious a thing is sin that it defileth the verie visible heaven and earth which therefore must bee likewise purged by the last fire as the earthen pot which held the sin-offering was broken and the brasen scoured and rinsed in water Ver. 30. And no sin-offering Here the ordinarie gloss make's this observation Remissionem dare Dei solius est qui per ignem significatur That to pardon sin belong's to God alone who is a consuming fire The Rhemists tell us of a man that could remove mountains Rhem. Annot. in Joâ— 20. Sect. 3. which they may assoon perswade us as that their Priests have as full power to pardon sins as Christ had One of their Priests meeting with a
are manifest Gal. 5. Neither need wee half so much caution or curiositie to bee persuaded of our spiritual leprosie which is too too apparent onely those manie cerimonies as one well noteth may put us in minde how much more exquisite our diligence ought to bee in finding and ferreting out our special sins Ver. 10. And there bee quick raw flesh It is one of the most remarkable things in all this law saith a learned Divine that quick or sound flesh in the sore should bee judged leprosie and the man unclean whereas if the leprosie covered all his flesh hee was pronounced clean vers 13. Hereby 1. May bee meant such as justifie themselvs and their wickedness as Jonas did his anger whereas hee was judged himself is like him who had the leprosie all over and might bee declared clean Or 2. Such who sin against the light of knowledg and the quickning yea rawness of a galled conscience Ver. 12. And if a leprosie So called becaus so counted at first but it prove's no more then a kinde of scurf or scab Ver. 13. Hee shall pronounce him clean i. e. not infectiously or incurably unclean Ver. 14. But when raw flesh Becaus it shew'd that there were still corrupt and poisoned humors in the bodie not easie to bee expelled till death Ver. 15. It is a leprosie Properly so called a fretting soreness or scabbedness The Greeks call it Elephas or Elephantiasis when the skin grow's hard as the Elephant's skin This the Israëlites brought likely out of Aegypt for it was bred onely about Nilus and is therefore called the botch of Aegypt Deut. 28.27 Ver. 16. Turn again Viz. to bee white like the rest of the bodie so if a sinner stop or step back c. Ver. 18. Was a bile and is healed Seemed to bee healed as apostates to have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledg of Christ 2 Pet. 2.20 and to have known the waie of righteousness vers 21. and yet the later end is wors with them then the begining They becom altogether filthie Psalm 53.3 Forsakers of the Covenant yea wicked doers against the Covenant Dan. 11.30 32. These sin not common sins as Core and his companie died not common deaths Ver. 22. And if it spread much abroad So if sin reign there is no pardon rebel it may reign it must not Ver. 23. But if the bright spot staie Sin if it reign not is not imputed for wee are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.12 14. Ver. 25. A leprosie broken out of the burning Seldom do passions burn but there is a leprosie breaking out of that burning such as causseth the climate where such lepers live to be like the torrid Zone too hot for anie to live neer them Ver. 30. A yellow thin hair Which is a true sign of a skall Ver. 34. Hee shall wash his clothes See the Note on ver 6. Ver. 35. After his cleansing See the Note on ver 18. Ver. 37. Black hair A sign of soundness Quod sanitas in corpore id sanctitas in corde saith Bernard Ver 39. A freckled spot Or white-morphew This made not a man unclean no more do meer infirmities make God abhor us Ver. 44. His plague is in his head Such a leper is everie ignorant man how much more the man that is an heretick whom therefore after the first and second admonition wee must reject Titus 3.10 yea from such stand off 1 Tim. 6.5 Keep aloof as from lepers Purchas Pilgr their verie breath is infectious and like the dogs of Congo they bite though they bark not Ver. 45. His clothes shall bee rent To shew his sorrow for sin the caus of his calamitie And his head bare That men might not mistake him and further to shew his humilitie whereof this also was a cerimonie A covering upon his upper lip His Moucbaches that by his breath hee might not insect others and to shew that God will not hear a good motion from an ill mouth Vnclean unclean Saie wee the same in our humblest acknowledgments but withall add that of the leper in the Gospel Yet Lord if thou wilt thou canst make mee clean Ver. 46. Without the Camp And that utterly if incurable as Vzzias A livelie type of Excommunication which the Apostle describeth 2 Cor. 5.11 12. and our Saviour Mat. 18.17 Ver. 47. The garment also A plague not anie where els read or heard of beeing nothing like clothes now-adaies infected with the plague but far more strange and dangerous whether it did spread or fret inward the garment was to bee burnt with fire This signified that all instruments of idolatrie or of anie other sin are to bee destroied and made awaie As the Law commandeth The graven images of their gods shall yee burn with fire Deut. 7.25 26. And Jude alludeth to it when hee biddeth us save som with fear pulling them out of the fire bating even the garment spotted by the flesh Jude 23. See Isa 30.22 Acts 19.19 Justiciaries also shall one daie finde that though to the worldward they wash themselvs with snow-water and make their hands never so clean yet God will plunge them in the ditch and their own clothes shall make them to bee abhorred Job 9.30 31. CHAP. XIIII Ver. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses ANd to Aaron also though not here mentioned as hee is vers 33. Ver. 2. Hee shall bee brought unto the Priest To teach us to go to Jesus Christ the high-Priest of our profession who healeth all our diseases Psalm 103.3 He cured the leprosie to others altogether incurable by a touch of his hand onely Mark 1.41 Yea hee sent his word and healed them Psalm 107.20 and so hee doth the souls of sinners that com unto him Ver. 3. If the plague of leprosie bee healed As it was in Simon the leper that entertained Christ Jealousie Phrensie and Heresie are counted incurable diseases not so leprosie though the most carried it to their death as Gehazi Azariah c. Ver. 4. Command to take That the leper might shew his thankfulness to Jehovah his Physician as hee is called Exod. 15.26 See Mat. 8.4 Men praie and paie Physicians of their bodies who yet do but officiosè occidere manie times And shall God have nothing Must hee ask as once Where are the other nine Shall wee not turn again with Naaman now cleansed and offer our service renounce our idols dedicate all wee are and have to the God of Israël Two birds Or sparrows whereof two were sold for a farthing to shew how lightly set by Christ is in the world whose blood nevertheless is more worth then a thousand worlds Ver. 5. Over running water Heb. Living water Life consist's in motion in action hence waters that spring and run are for their continual motion called living waters O Lord saith Hezekiah By these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit Isa 38.16 Ver. 6. That was killed over
resting this made them murmure Chap. 11.1 non quia dura sed quia molles patimur Sen. Went before them And as the Iewes conceive for the facilitating of their march the cloud levelled mountains raised vallies and laid all of a flat that is burnt up bushes smoothed rocks and made all plain c. Vers 35. Rise up Lord Commanders must pray as well as lead on their forces as did Charles the great and that late brave King of Sweden more addict to prayer then to fight CHAP. XI Vers 1. ANd when the people complained Or were as it were complainers they did inwardly and secretly repine and mutter at their three dayes march without intermission like those horses that disgest their choller by biting the bridle Consumed them that were in the uttermost parts There it seems the sin began amongst those that were faint and weary with travell as Deut. 25.18 Vers 2. And the people cryed to Moses That Lord Chancellour of Heaven as one calleth him that could rule with God and over-rule Of Moses it might be said as once of Luther Iste vir potuit apud deum quod voluit he might have whatsoever he would of God Vers 3. The name of the place Taberah So to perpetuate the memory of the peoples sin and Gods judgment Alterius perditio tua sit cautio Vers 4. And the mixâ— multitude See the Note on Exod. 12.38 Observe the danger of ill company Fish retains their sweetness in the salt sea The river d ee in Merioneth-shire running through Pimble-meere remaines entire and mingles not her streames with the waters of the lake The rivers of Peru after they have run some miles into the sea retain their sweetness as writers report But to converse with the ungodly and not to learn their manners is marvellous rare and difficult A man may pass through Ethiopia unchanged but he cannot dwell there and not be discoloured Vers 5. We remember the fish They forgat their servitude Discontent is ever harping upon wants and enjoyes nothing no more then Haman did his honour or Alâ—ab his kingdome when he longed for a sallet out of Naboths garden Vers 6. There is nothing at all besides The wheat of heaven was held a light meat because lightly come by Citò parta vilescunt How are many queasie stomacks even nauseated with the bread of life it makes not to their dainty palates 3 plain preaching is dis-rellished Vers 7. And the Manna See the Note on Exod. 16.14 31. There was therefore no such cause they should so loath it Was as Coriander seed Small but full of sweetness and nourishment Deut. 34.7 This might be some cause of Moses his undecayedness As the colour of Bdellium A kinde of transparent and precious gumme Vers 8. And the people went about Or went to and fro as men ought still to encrease knowledg Dan. 12.4 labouring for the meat that endureth to eternall life Joh. 6.27 God might have saved them this labour by rayning Manna into their mouthes but he would not for the tryall of their diligence and that they might not think that worth nothing that cost them nothing And ground it in mills So was Jesus Christ ground and pounded with passion baked and dryed up in the oven of his fathers displeasure before he became fit food and a Saviour to his Church As the taste of fresh oyle Or wafers baked with honey Exod. 16.31 The sweet promises of grace are sweeter then honey Psal 19.10 No fresh and sweet oyle can so cherish the face as they do the heart of a believer Vers 9. And when the dew fell As Manna fell in the dew so doth the Spirit descend in and by the word preached Gal. 3.2 In the night Figuring that hidden Manna laid up and prepared for the Saints Revel 2.17 Vers 10. Weep throughout their families Generally and openly they mutinied and murmured though so lately they had smarted at Taberah And this they did not once or twise but ten times over whereby it appeares that God chose this unthankfull people not for their merits sedex mera et mira misericordia he chose them for his love and loved them for his choyse Vers 11. Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant Antoninus the Emperour said often Imperium Oceanum esse malorum that to be a governour of others is to be plunged into an Ocean of miseries Pope Adrian caused to be engraven upon his own tomb Foelix si non imperitasset Melancthon said the three sorest labours of all were Docentis imperantis parturientis the labours of Ministers Magistrates and of travelling women Vers 12. As a nursing father beareth c. Lovingly mildly gently A Magistrate should carry himself as a Pater patriae Cambdens Elisab Queen Elizabeth would many times say That she could believe nothing of her people that parents would not believe of their children Vers 13. Whence should I have flesh Lust is unsatisfiable to go about it is to go about an endless piece of work it is to cast oyl into the fire to quench it Vers 14. It is too heavy for me Crowns have their cares seats are uneasie many a cumber attends honour Beatus ille qui procul negotiis Horat. Vers 15. And if thou deal thus with me Here the word Thou spoken to God is of the feminine gender At for Atta ex magna perturbatione saith a Rabbine Moses was so exceedingly moved with anger and grief these passions did so overcarry him that he could not complere vocem utter his whole speech as he that groaneth or gapeth in the beginning of his sentence cannot make up his breath to speak what he intended Vers 16. Gather unto me seventy men Here say some began the Sanhedrim that is the great Counsel of the Jews consisting of seventy Seniours and one President It continued till the time of Herod the Great who took it away and changed the form of it Vers 17. And I will take of the spirit i. e. I will bestow the same Spirit upon them as upon thee and this shall be nothing at all to thy loss or disadvantage Habet Hispania montem ex sale magnum de quo quantum demas tantum accrescit shall bear the burden of the people Who are in nothing more a burden then in this that with them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thucyd. Praesens imperium semper grave they are ever grumbling at the present government though never so gentle Alleva jugum Ease the yoke that thy father put upon us 1 King 12.4 said they to Rehoboam forgetting the golden age they had lived in under his father Solomon Vers 18. Sanctifie your selves Ironicè dictum or sanctifie that is prepare your selves for the day of slaughter as Jer. 12.3 For you have wept in the ears Tears of what sort soever have a voyce in them Psal 39.12 as blood hath Gen. 4. For it was well with us in Egypt Such is the murmuring of those malecontents that
them have the ball on the foot till they come almost to the goal and then defeats them of their great hopes as he did this sinful couple Balac had not his will nor Balaam his wages God fooled them both pulling the morsel out of their mouthes that they had well-nigh devâ—ured Vers 14. I will advertise thee viz. what to do as he did Num. 31.16 Parasites propound to Princes suavia potiâ—s quam sana consilia pleasing but pestilent counsel and so do officiously mischieve them as the dragon is said to bite the Elephants ear and there-hence to suck his blood that being the only place that he cannot reach with his trunk to defend Vers 16. And knew the knowledg of the most High The eye may be clear while the hand is palsied Balaam's great knowledg was but intuitiva standing in speculation it was not directiva vitae he knew but by hear-say as a blind man knows colours his light served but to light him into utter daâ—kness Neronis Quantus artifex pereo quadrabit in te peritum periturum Vers 17. I shall see him So shall every eye and those also that pierced him Rev. 1.17 but not as Abraham saw him and rejoyced nor as Job Chap. 19.25 27. The pure in heart only shall see him to their comfort as pure glass or Chrystal lets in the light of the Sun Some wicked have greater common gifts then the godly as many metals are brighter and more orient then the heavens yet as those metals are not so fit either to receive or convey the light of the Sun so neither are the wicked so fit either to take or give toothers the knowledg of salvationby the remission of their sins A starre out of Jacob Jesus Christ the true Morning-Starr Revel 22.16 Joh. 1.9 that those Wise-men Matth. 2. had heard of probably either from the Chaldaean Sibyll or from the Iews in the Babylonish captivity or from this Prophecy of Balaam for he was an East-country-man and uttereth here a very clear and comfortable Prophecy of the Messiah by whom himself received no benefit Cant. 4.12 Thus the Church Christs garden enclosed may be watered thorow a woodden gutter the Sun give comfortable light thorough a sluttish window the field may be well sowed with a dirty hand the bell call us to the Church though it never enter it self but by the sound the Well may yeeld excellent water though it have much mnd c. And destroy all the children of Seth Heb. unwall that is conquer and subdue Christ by those rams-horns by the foolishness of preaching pulls down strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 5. Vers 18. And Edom shall be a possession This was literally fulfilled in David 1 Chron. 18.13 Psal 60.8 but spiritually and especially in Christ Esay 63.1 2 c. who shall shortly subdue the Romish Edomite 2 Thess 2.8 Vers 19. And shall destroy him David in the history 1 King 11.15 16. Christ in the mystery Obad. 18. even all the Antichristian rout and rabble Revel 19.21 Vers 20. First of the Nations Or principal see vers 7. Vers 21. The Kenites i. e. The Midianites Judg. 1.16 4.11 mingled among the Amalekites 1 Sam. 15.6 for whom they are and fare the worse as Hamath did for Damascus Zech. 9.2 Vers 22. Vntill Ashur Who together with the Jews carried captive all the neighbour Nations Ier. 25.9 Vers 23. Who shall live when c. The Assyrian that rod of Gods wrath that over-flowing scourge shall take all afore him shall bereave millions of their lives as Caesar is said to have done and of Mahomet the first Emperour of the Turks Turk hist it is storied that he had been in his time the death of 800000 men Vers 24. From the coast of Chittim From Greoce and Italy Those four great Monarchs had their times and their turns their ruines as well as their rise Vers 25. Returned to his place Homewards he went but staid amongst the Midianites and soon after came back to them to receive money of them saith Chazkuni when he heard say of the plague which had been in Israel by his counsel But as Shimei sought his servants and lost his life so Balaam c. CHAP. XXV Vers 1. TO commit whoredom By the wicked counsel of Balaam who knew well that no one means hath more enriched hell then beautiful faces and therefore taught Balac to lay this stumbling block before the children of Israel and is therein held by some to have sinned against the Holy Ghost Howsoever he goes out in a stench as it is usually said of his Master the Devil Vers 2. Vnto the sacrifices of their gods Unto their idol-feasts for Sâ—ne Cerere Libero friget Venus Gluttony is the gallery that leachery walketh thorough And bowed down to their gods Nemo repentè sit turpissimus by degrees they were drawn to open idolatry If a mans foot slip into hell-mouth it is a miracle if he stop ere he come to the bottom Principiis obsta dally not with the Devil sin is very insinuative and the old Serpent if he once get in his head will quickly winde in his whole body Vers 3. joyned himself to Baal-Peor Separated himself to that shame Hos 9.10 that abominable and shameless service of Priapus as Hierome and Isidore understand it as Maachah the mother of Asa seems to have done 1 King 15. and other filthy persons whose fashion was assoon as their sacrifice was ended to step aside into the grove of their god and there like bruit beasts promiscuously to satisfie their lusts c. Vah scelus infandum Vers 4. Take all the heads The chieftains their greatness might not bear them out Potentes potenter torquebuntur Hell is paved said One of old with the bald-pates of shavelings and with the crests of great Commanders who had ever opposed with crest and breast whatsoever stood in the way of their sins and lusts Vers 5. Vnto the Judges of Israel Those of them that had not defiled themselves else with what face could they punish others or look upon those that before their faces had been hanged up against the Sun whose destruction was for ever to be remembred Mic. 6.5 Vers 6. In the sight of Moses This mans face was hatcht over with detestable impudence he thought it may be that being so great a man Plin. lib. 7. none durst meddle with him Pliny reports of Proculus Caesar that by him viginti virgines intra dies quindecim foetum conceperunt Lewis the 11. of France inviting our Edward 4. to the French Court Rectè erit cognate saith He Comineus l. 6. jucundi vivemus suaviter teque oblectabis cum lectissimis foeminis c. He should have added But know that for all these things thou must come to Judgment that would have haply Eccles 11. allayed his lust cooled his courage And not have come in with his Adhibebo tibi Cardinalem Borbonium is quicquid peccaris pro
ea quam habet potestate facilè expiabit Thou shalt take thy full pleasure and then my Cardinal shall give thee full pardon Vers 7. He rose up An heroical act by an extraordinary motion as was also that of Ehud and therefore is not to be made a rule of practice as Burchet conceited when by this example he held himself warranted to kill a great personage in this Kingdom whom he took to be a vitious man and Gods enemy Vers 8. And thrust both of them thorow So they dyed in the flagrancy of their lust as did likewise One of the Popes taken in the act and slain together with his harlot by the husband of the adulteress Mention is likewise made by William Malmsbury of one Walter Bishop of Hereford Anno 1060. his offering to force his Sempster She resisted what she might Godw. Catal. but finding him too strong for her thrust her sheers into his belly and gave him his deaths-wound Vers 9. Twenty and four thousand Twenty and three thousand saith S. Paul 1 Cor. 10.8 insisting only in the special punishment of the people who were provoked to sin by that other thousand their Princes as ver 4. And all to shew Jun. Parallell quà m frigida jejuna sit eorum defensio c. saith Junius how poorly they plead for themselves that think to excuse their sins by alledging the examples of their superiours Vers 13. Because he was zealous for his God Enraged as a jealous man with a holy hatred of sin and inflamed with love to God quem aliter amare non didicerat as Chrysostome speaks of Basil Non amat qui non Zelat saith Augustine Contra Adamant c. 13. He is no friend to God that is not zealous for him To one that desired to know what kind of man Basil was there was presented in a dream saith the history a pillar of fire with this Motto Talis est Basilius Basil is such a one all on a light fire for God Vers 14. A Prince of a chief house Whom yet Phineas spared not as neither did John Baptist spare Herod nor Nathan David nor Bishop Lambert King Pippin Epitome hist Gall. pag. 30. whom he freely reproved to his face for his adultery Anno 798. though he were afterwards therefore slain by the harlots brother Odo Severus the 22. Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 934. dealt like plainly with King Edwin excommunicated his Concubines and caused one of them on whom the King doted unreasonable Godw. Catal. ◠to be fetcht out of the court by violence burnt her in the forehead with a hot iron and banished her into Ireland Vers 17. Vex the Midianites As more malicious and mischievous then the Moabites as appears 1. By their detaining of ' Balaam when the Moabites dismissed him in great displeasure 2. By the wickedness of their women who by Cozbi may seem to have been meretrices meretricissimae Lib. 2. tum such as afterwards was Julia. Messalina and that Romish Lucretia Concubine to Pope Alexander 6. of whom Pontanus Hoc tumulo dormit Lucretia nomine sedre Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nurus Vers 18. For they vex you with their wiles Not with their wars they out-wit you over-reach you by counterfeit courtesie cut-throat kindness they have deceived you into those sister-sins fornication and idolatry which God hath so severely punished CHAP. XXVI Vers 2. FRom twenty See the note on Chap. 1.3 Vers 9. Which were famous But for no goodness Tubulus who was the Romane Praetor a little afore Tullies time was homo tam projectè improbus Lips Antiq. lection ut ejus nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur so wicked a wretch that he seemed to be wickedness it self Portius Latro calleth Catiline sacrarium libidinum portentum scelerum gurgitem sentinam flagitiorum c. a sink of sinfulness And Josephus saith of Antipater that his life was no better then a mystery of iniquity These men were famous or rather infamous for their slagitious practices notoriously naught signally sinful Vers 10. And they became a sign An example of that Rule that Great sins bring great plagues as Herodotus hath it speaking of the destruction of Troy Aliorum perditio tua sit cautio Enjoy other mens madness Discite justitiam moniti c. Let all that behold me beware this was written upon the statue of Sennacherib as saith Herodotus Vers 11. The children of Korah dyed not As being either innocent or penitent for Aut poenitendum aut pereundum Luk. 13.3 Vers 44. The family of the Jesuites Serrarius will needs derive the name Jesuites from the 24. verse of this chapter it is wonder how he missed of this plainer text Jesuites quasi Jashubites Like as Erasmus found Friers in St. Paul's time inter falsos fratres amongst the false brethren In Salamanca a Frier would prove that the name of the Virgin Mary was spoken of Stella de modo concionandi cap. 6. Gen. 1. God called the gathering together of the waters Maria. Doctor Poynes writes that it was foretold in the Old Testament that the Protestants were a malignant Church alledging 2 Chr. 24.19 Mittebatque prophet as ut reverterentur ad Dominum quos protestantes illi audire nolebant Preface to his Book of the Sacrament We may with far more shew of reason fetch the name of Protestants retained also by their Doway translation from that text then they can from this the name of Jesuites alias Jebusites CHAP. XXVII Vers 3. BVt dyed in his own sin i. e. By a natural and an ordinary death not by a special plague as that Arch-rebel Korah Death is the just hire of the least sin Rom. 6. ult But some evil-doers God doth not only put to death but also hangs them up in gibbets as it were for publike notice and admonition Vers 4. Give unto us therefore a possession This plea for a part in a land not yet conquered is a proof of their faith and could not but encourage others Such a masculine faith was that of Mrs. Anne Askew Martyr who thus subscribed her confession Written by me Anne Askew Act. Mon. fol. 1128. that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that is bound for heaven I will not bid you good night said Hellen Stirk Scotch-woman to her husband at the place where they both suffered Martyrdome for we shall suddenly meet in the heavenly Canaan And was it not by the force of her faith Ib. 1154. that substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 that Crispina gaudebat cum tenebatur cum audiebatur Aug. in Psal 137. cum damnabatur cum ducebatur Vers 7. And thou shalt cause the inheritance Let the French defend their Salique law as they can It was a witty Essay of him who stiled women the second Edition of the Epitome of the whole world witness Artemisia Zenobia Blandina
the furnace Dan. 3.25 was a miracle so it is that men so favoured love not God Vers 2. And which have not seen Segniùs irritant animos demissa per aures Horat. Quam quae sunt oculis commissa fidelibus He speaks unto them as to eye-witnesses and those that have such evidence and self-experience are usually more affected then those that have things by hear-say only Mine eye affects my heart Lam 3.51 Vers 4. Hath destroyed them unto this day i. e. Hath so destroyed and dismaid them that to this day we hear no more of them As the Romanes so quailed and quelled King Aitalus that he made a law that none of his successours should make war with that State for ever Vers 5. And what he did unto you A Diary should be diligently kept of what God does for us Psal 102.18 for the help of our slippery memories and the firing up of our dull hearts to a contention in godliness Vers 9. And that ye may prolong See the Note on Chap. 4.40 Vers 10. And wateredst it with thy foot Fetching and carrying water called therefore the water of their feet as our life is called the life of our hands Esay 57.10 because maintained with the labour of our hands Vers 11. And drinketh water of the rain of heaven God crowning the year with his goodness and his pathes dropping fatness Psal â—5 10 11 12. In the Hebrew it is thy chariot-wheel-tracks for the clouds are Gods chariots Psal 104.3 in which water is bound Job 26.8 How they are upheld and why they fall here and now we know not and wonder The Egyptians used in a prophane mockery to tell other nations that if God should forget to rain they might chance to starve for it they thought the rain was of God but not their river Nilus See Ezek. 29.3 9. Isai 19.5 6. Vers 12. Which the Lord thy God careth for Deus sic curat universa quasi singula sic singula quasi sola Aug. From the beginning of the year How easie were it for God to starve us all by denying us a harvest or two Vers 13. And it shall come to passe This passage of Scripture following the Jews read daily in their families as Maimonides reporteth Vers 14. That I will give you the rain Rain God gives to all by a providence Act. 14.17 Job 38.26 but to his Israel by vertue of a promise whereby the might live not as by bread only but as by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God Vers 16. That your heart be not deceived Having first deceived it self for the heart is deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 c. and may say to many as the heart of Apollonius the Tyrant seemed to say to him who dreamed one night that he was fleaed by the Scythians and boyled in a Caldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle and said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. It is I that have drawn thee to all this Those in hell cry so Vers 17. And he shut up the heaven The keys of heaven of the heart of the womb and of the grave God keeps and carries under his own girdle as we may say Vers 18. In your heart Yea upon your heart Esay 47.7 57.11 so as they may sink thereinto Luk. 9.44 as the best balm cast into water sinks to the bottom Vers 19. Teach them your children See the Note on Chap. 6.7 Vers 21. As the dayes of heaven i. e. As long as the world standeth Hence haply we may conceive hope of the repentance of the Jews and their re-establishment in this promised land Vers 26. A blessing and a curse With the way to either that if ye miscarry ye may have none to blame but your selves For oft it falls out that whereas the foolishness of man perverteth his way his heart fretteth against the Lord Prov. 19.3 Vers 29. Put the blessing upon Mount Gerizim That is pronounce it there See Josh 8.33 Hence the Samaritans built their Temple on this mount as a blessed place and there worshiped they knew not what Joh. 4.20 22. calling themselves Those that belong to the blessed Mount CHAP. XII Vers 1. THese are the Statutes Here Moses begins to comment upon the second Commandement of the law See the Note on Chap. 6.1 Vers 2. Ye shall vtterly destroy This clause of this law is judiciall peculiar onely to the Jewes saith a grave Interpreter as being cheifly intended to prevent their worshipping God in any other place then that one that he had appointed to which we in the dayes of the Gospell are not tied See Vers 5 6. It was a temporary Ordinance saith another and a part of Moses politie now abrogate Vers 3 And you shall hew downe As was here done notably in King Edward the sixths dayes notwithstanding the withstandings of the rude rabble Life of Edw. 6. by Sir Joh. Heyw. which more regarded commotioners then Commissioners and were more guided by rage then by right c. So that as one Master Body a Commissioner was pulling down images in Cornwall he was suddenly stabbed into the body by a Priest with a knife Vers 4. Ye shall not do so As wicked Ahaz did 2 Chron. 27.24 by the advice and help of Vriah that turn-coat 2 King 16. who had once passed for a faithful witness Isai 7.2 but afterwards proved a factour for the Devil Vers 5. And thither shalt thou come In token of an holy communion with God Vers 6 Heave-offerings of your hand For none might appear empty-handed before the Lord. Vers 7. And there ye shall eat before the Lord Loe this ye shall have of Gods hand as a recompence of all your charge and pains ye shall feast before him with joy This made those good souls go bodily on from strength to strength though they took many a weary step yet their comfort was that they should every one of them in Zion appear before the Lord Psal 84.7 This was the sweet-meats of that feast other dainty dishes there might be but this was the banquet Vers 9. For ye are not as yet come to the rest No more are any of us indeed till we come to that rest which remaineth for the people of God Heb. 4.3 8 9 10. The Ark was transportative till setled in Solomons temple so till we come to heaven are we in continual unrest Vers 10. So that ye dwell in safety Having peace both external and internl of country and of conscience Regionis Religionis Vers 12. And ye shall rejoyce No one duty is more pressed in both the Testaments then this of rejoycing in the Lord alwaies but specially in his immediate services And the contrary is complained of Mal. 2.13 and sorely threatned Deut. 28.47 Vers 14. But in the place This taught them unity and uniformity in divine worship as also that there was but one only way to obtain pardon of their sin
destruction of Jerusalem at which time wrath came upon them to the utmost 2 Thess 2. Vers 58. This glorious and fearful Name That Nomen majestativum as Bernard calleth it The wiser sort of Heathens acknowledged augustius esse de Deo sentiendum Hinc Pythagericum illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quà m ut nomen imaginem ejus passim ac temerè usurpemus that higher thoughts must be taken of God then lightly and prophanely to make use of his name which no man may presume in a sudden unmannerliness to blurt out When they would swear by their Jupiter they would break off their oath with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suidas as those that only durst to owe the rest to their thoughts Vers 63. So the Lord will rejoyce over you See here the venemous nature of sin so far forth offensive to Almighty God as to cause him who otherwise afflicts not willingly Lam. 3.33 but delights in mercy Mic. 7.18 to rejoyce in the ruine of his creatures as here to laugh at their destruction and mock when their fear cometh Prov. 1.26 to take as much pleasure therein as a man would do in a cup of generous wine Rev. 16.19 and to be as much eased thereby as one over-gorged would be in ridding his stomach of that that oppressed it Rev. 3.16 Vers 65. A trembling heart Juvenal by a jeer calls them Judaeos trementes trembling Jews Sat. 6. It seems they had Cains curse upon them Vers 66. And thy life shall hang in doubt Semper indesinenter desperabis de vita thou shalt live in continual expectation of death as Tiberius caused such to do as he most hated for a singular punishment Vers 68. And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt This is the last and greatest curse here threatned Oh pray pray said that Dutch Divine upon his death-bed Pontifex enim Romanus concilium Tridentiaum mira moliuntur for the Pope and his Council are seeking to bring us all back into spirituall Egypt Ah ne diem illum posteri Vivant mei quo pristinum Vertantur in lutum aurea Qua nos beârunt soecula What long hath been the opinion and fear of some not unconsiderable Divines Mr. Baylie his Anabaptis unsealed c. pref that Antichrist before his abolition shall once again overflow the whole face of the West and suppresse the whole Protestant Churches I pray God to avert CHAP. XXVI Vers 1. BEside the covenant Which yet was also a covenant of grace and the same with this in substance only that at Horeb was made and delivered in a more legal manner this in a more Evangelical as appears in the following Chapter Vers 4. Yet the Lord hath not given you Nor is he bound to do but on whom he will he sheweth mercy and whom he will he hardeneth i.e. he softneth not Till when a man stands in the midst of means as a stake in the midst of streams unmoveable yea the more God forbids a sin the more he bids for it Rom. 7.8 See the Notes on Matth. 13.11 13 14. Vers 5. Your clothes See the Note on Chap. 8.4 Vers 6. ye have not eaten bread Viz. ordinarily see Deut. 2.6 but Manna beneficium postulat officium Vers 11. From the hewer of thy wood The meanest amongst you such as afterwards were the Gibeonites who also by faith became Covenanters and are called Nethinims in Ezra and Nehemiah They were made drawers of water to the Temple as a kind of punishment God made it a mercy for the nearer they were to the Church the nearer they became to God Vers 16. How we have dwelt And how hard is it to passe thorow Ethiopia how much more to dwell there and not to be discoloured Sin is catching and by the senses those cinque-ports of the soul that old serpent oft winds himself into the heart Ye have seen their abominations oh that you would say Satis est vidisse c. Now therefore lest there should be c. vers 18. Vers 17. A root that beareth gall An evill heart of unbeliefe Heb. 3.12 a deceitfull and deceived heart Ier. 17.9 Isai 44.20 that is ever either weaving spiders webbes i e. loving vanity seeking after leasing Psal 4.2 or hatching cockatrice eggs that is acting mischief Esay 59.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As in that first Chaos were the seeds of all creatures so in mans heart here therefore fitly called a root of rottenness of all sins Holy Bradford would never look upon any ones leud life with one eye but presently reflect upon himself with the other and say In this my vile heart remains that sin which without Gods speciall grace I should have committed as well as he Vers 19. When be heareth the words But feareth them no more then Behemoth doth the iron weapons which are esteemed by him as straws The presumptuous sinner saith one makes God a God of cloutes one that howsoever he speaks heavy words will not do as he saith Words are but wind say they in Ieremy Chap. 5.13 God forbid say they in the Gospell Luk. 20.16 These things are but spoken in terrorem thinks the practicall Athiest bug-beare words devised on purpose to affright silly people c. Ahab after he was threatned with utter rooting out begat fifty sons as it were to cross God and to try it out with him So Thrasonicall Lamech brags and goes on to out-dare God himself If Cain be avenged c. Gen. 4.23 The old Italians were wont in time of thunder to shoot off their greatest ordnance and to ring their greatest bells to drown the noise of the heavens like unto these are many frontless and flagitious persons But shall they escape by iniquity in thine anger it is not more a prayer then a prophecy cast down the people O God Psal 56.7 To add drunkenness to thirst To add rebellion to sin Iob 34.37 To drink iniquity like water Vers 7. His sin and his repentance run in a circle as drankenness and thirst do He sins and cryes God mercy and sayes he will sin no more and yet does it again the next day till his heart be so heardened by the deceitfulness of sin that at length he looseth all passive power of recovering himself out of the snare of the devill by whom he is taken alive at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26 Vers 20. The Lord will not spare him God cannot satisfie himself in threatning this heynous sin as if the very naming of it had inraged his jealousie Yea when he threatneth it he useth here no qualifications as he doth in other cases but is absolute in threatning to shew that he will be resolute in punishing See the like Esay 22.12 13 14. Ezek. 24 1◠It is better therefore to have a sore then a seared conscience as a burning feaver is more hopeful then a lethargy Vers 22. When they see the plagues A presumptuous offender is a traytour to the State and one sinner destroyeth much
dream of that libertie wee yet enjoie would bee as precious to us as a drop of cold water would have been to the rich man in hell when hee was so grievously tormented in those flames Vers 15. To the Hebrew Midwives In Egypt and Greece the midwives of old had their schools and som of them were great writers I know not whether the Priests were then so officious to them as manie are now among the Papists who saie they therefore studie Albertus Magnus de secretis mulierum that they may advise the Midwives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. but I doubt it is for a wors purpose to gratifie and greaten those abominable lusts wherewith they are scalded Vers 16. Then yee shall kill him No greater argument of an ill caus then a bloodie persecution George Tankerfield the Martyr was in King Edward's daies a verie papist Act Man fol. 1535. till the time Queen Marie came in And then perceiving the great crueltie used on the Popes side was brought into a misdoubt of their doing and began as hee said in his heart to abhor them Vers 17. And did not as the King c Wherein they did no more though out of a better principle then Nature it self dictateth Antigona saith thus in Sophocles Magis obtemper andum est Dijs apud quos diutiùs manendum erit quà m hominibus quibuscum admodum breui tempore vivendum est See the Note on Act. 4.19 Wee must rather obeie God then men Vers 18. Why have yee don this thing They might well have answered as shee did in Euripides Obediemus Atridis bonesta mandantibus Sin verò inhonesta mandabunt non Obediemus If you command things honest wee will obeie you not els Or as that brave woman upon the rack Non ideo negare volo nè peream sed ideo mentiri nolo Hieronym nè peccem Vers 19. For they are livelie By that voice of the Lord which maketh the hindes to calv Psal 29. Ladie Faith was their midwife And shee hath delivered the graves of their dead Heb. 11.35 how much more wombes of their quick Children Vers 20. dealt well with the midwives God is a liberal paiemaster and his retributions are more then bountiful Bee yee therefore stedfast and unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord sith yee know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor. 15. vlt. Greg. Moral And the people multiplied Sic divinum consilium dum devitatur impletur humana sapientia dum reluctatur comprehenditur as Gregory hath it Prov. 19.21 There are manie devices in the heart of a man but the counsel of the Lord that shall stand Among the Romanes the more children anie man had the more hee was freed from publick burdens And of Adrian the Emperor it is storied that when those that had manie Children were accused of anie crime Dio in Adriano hee mitigated their punishment according to the number of their Children But these poor Israëlites were otherwise used Vers 21. Becaus the midwives feared God There is no necessitie of granting that the midwives told the King a lie see ver 19. But if they did St. Austin saith well Non remunerata fuit ijs fallacia sed benevolentia benignitas mentis non iniquitas mentienâ—is Their lie was not rewarded but their kind-heartedness That hee made them houses i. e. hee gave them posteritie Thus hee builded David an hous 2 Sam. 7. And thus Rachel and Leah are said to have built the hous of Israël Ruth 4.11 The parents are as it were the soundation of the hous the children as so manie livelie stones in the building Hence the Hebrews call a Son Ben of Banah to build quòd sit aedificium struciura parentum quoad generationem educationem Ver. 22. And Pharaoh charged Imperio non tam duro quà m diro This was a most bloodie edict therefore when God came to make inquisition for blood hee gave them blood again to drink for they were worthie Tertullian The like hee did to Nero qui orientem fidem primus Romae cruentavit to Julian Valens Valerian Attilas Girzerichus Charls the ninth of France and manie other bloodie Persecutors See the note on Rev. 16.6 CHAP. II. Ver. 1. And took to wife HIs own Aunt Exod. 6.20 Num. 26.59 The Law against Incest Levit. 18.12 was not yet given nor the state of Israël settled But what excuse can there bee for that abominable Incest of the Hous of Austria by Papal dispensation Spec. Europ King Philip of Spain was Uncle to himself Cousin-german to his Father Husband to his Sister and Father to his Wife And what shal wee say of our Modern Sectaries whose practising of Incest is now avowed publickly in Print they shame not to affirm that those marriages are most lawful that are betwixt persons nearest in blood brother and sister father and daughter See Mr Bayly his disswasion part 2. and Mr Edwards Gangr par 3. mother and son uncle and neece The prohibition of degrees in Leviticus is to bee understood say they of Fornication not of Marriage Tamar did not doubt to bee her brother Amnon's wife but detested the act of Fornication c. Lo here Little Nonsuch p. 5.6.7 what noon-day devils do now in this unhappie open-tide walk with open face amongst us Ver. 2. A goodly child Fair to God Act. 7.20 See the note there Art thou fair bee not like an Egyptian temple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where som beast is worshipped Art thou foul let thy Soul bee like a rich pearl in a rude shell Ver. 3. And shee laid it in the flags This shee did by the force of her Faith Heb. 11. Casting the childe upon God and under hope believing against hope Ver. 4. And his Sister by a singular instinct of the holy Spirit as appear's by the event The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord Psal 37.23 Hee keepeth the feet of his Saints 1 Sam. 2.9 Ver. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh shee was brought hither at this time by a special providence to do that which shee little dreamt of So when Heidelberg was taken by the Imperialists the copie of Vrsinus's Catechism enlarged by Pareus was among many other papers carried away by a plundering Souldier but happily dropt in the streets and found the next daie by a young Student who knowing his master's hand restored it to his son Philip Pareus Vita David Paâ—eâ— per Philippum filium who afterwards published that golden book to the great Glorie of God who had so graciously preserved it Ver. 6. One of the Hebrews so called of Heber see the Note on Gen. 13.14 Ver. 9. And I will give thee thy wages The nurs expect's not her paie from the childe but from the parents Ministers in case their people prove unkinde or unthankful must look up Ver. 10. Shee called his name Moses Hee was also by the Egyptians